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THE  LIFE   OF  PASTEUR 


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THE 
LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

BY    RENÉ   VALLERY-RADOT 

TRANSLATED   FROM  THE 

FRENCH  BY  MRS.  R.  L. 

DEVONSHIRE 

VOL   I 

L'oeuvre  de  Pasteur  est  admirable;  elle  montre  son 
génie,  mais  it  faut  avoir  vécu  dans  son  intimité  pour 
connaître  toute  la  bonté  de  son  coeur.— Dr.  Roux 


NEW   YORK 

McCLURE,    PHILLIPS    AND    CO 

1902 


^  s  5^  I'y^ 


BUTLER  &  TAKXER, 

THE  SELWOOD  PRINTING  WORKS, 

FROME,  AND  LONDON. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  ONE 

CHAPTER    I 

1822-1843 

Origin  of  the  Pasteur  Family,  i— Jean  Joseph  Pasteur,  a  Conscript  in 
181 1  ;  Sergeant-major  in  the  3rd  Infantry  Regiment,  4  ;  a  Knight 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  5  ;  his  Marriage,  7  ;  the  Tannery  at  Dole, 
7— Birth  of  Louis  Pasteur,  his  Childhood  and  Youth,  8.  Studies 
in  Arbois  College,  9.  Departure  for  Paris,  14.  Arrival  in  Paris,  15  ; 
the  Barbet  Boarding  School,  Home  Sickness,  15.  Return  to 
Jura,  Pasteur  a  Portrait  Painter,  16;  enters  Besançon  Royal 
College,  18  ;  a  Bachelier  es  Lettres,  a  Preparation  Master,  19  ; 
his  Readings,  20.  Friendship  with  Chappuis,  24  ;  a  Bachelier  es 
Sciences,  27  ;  Pasteur  admitted  to  the  Ecole  Normale,  30  ;  Sorbonne 
Lectures,  Impression  produced  by  J.  B.  Dumas,  28. 

CHAPTER    n 
1 844-1 849 
First   Crystallographic   Researches,  3^  ;  Pasteur  a  Curator  in  Balard's 
Laboratory,    works    with   Auguste    Laurent,   42.      Chemistry    and 
Physics  Theses,  45.     Pasteur  reads  a  Paper  at  the  Académie  des 
Sciences,  46,    February  days,  1848,  48.    Molecular  Dissymmetry,  50  ; 
J.  J.  Biot's  Emotion  at  Pasteur's  first  Discovery,  54.    Pasteur  Pro- 
fessor  of    Physics   at    Dijon,  56.     Professor  of  Chemistry  at   the 
Strasburg    Faculty,    his    Friend    Bertin,  60  ;    M.    Laurent,    Rector 
of  the  Strasburg  Academy,  61  ;  Pasteur's  Marriage,  66. 

CHAPTER   in 

1850-1854 
Disgrace   of  the  Strasburg  Rector,  69.    Letter  from  Biot  to   Pasteur's 
Father,  74.    Letter  from  J.  B.  Dumas,  77.    Interview  with  Mitscher- 

V 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  ONE 

lich,  80.  Pasteur  in  quest  of  Racemic  Acid,  in  Germany,  Austria 
and  Bohemia,  81.  Pasteur  a  Knight  of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  91. 
Biot's  Congratulations,  92.    Proposed  Work,  94. 


CHAPTER   IV 

1855-1859 

Pasteur  Dean  of  the  new  Lille  Faculty,  97  ;  his  Teaching,  99  ;  First 
Studies  on  Fermentations,  102.  First  Candidature  for  the  Academy 
of  Sciences,  105.  Lactic  Fermentation,  108.  Pasteur  Administrator 
of  the  Ecole  Normale,  109.  Alcoholic  Fermentation,  iii.  Death  ot 
Pasteur's  eldest  Daughter,  112. 

CHAPTER  V 

I 860-1 864 
So-called  spontaneous  Generation,  115.  Polemics  and  Experiments,  120 
Renewed  Candidature  for  the  Académie  des  Sciences,  130.  Lectures 
on  Crystallography,  133.  Pasteur  elected  a  Member  of  the  Académie 
des  Sciences,  135.  Conversation  with  Napoleon  III,  136.  Lecture 
at  the  Sorbonne  on  so-called  spontaneous  Generation,  137.  Pasteur 
and  the  Students  of  the  Ecole  Normale,  143.  Discussions  raised 
by  the  question  of  spontaneous  Generation,  145.  Studies  on 
Wine,  148. 

CHAPTER   VI 

1865-1870 
The  Silkworm  Disease;  Pasteur  sent  to  Alais,  150.  Death  of  Jean 
Joseph  Pasteur,  154.  Return  to  Paris,  158  ;  Pasteur's  Article  on  J.  B. 
Dumas'  Edition  of  Lavoisier's  Works,  160.  Death  of  his  Daughter 
Camille,  161.  Candidature  of  Ch.  Robin  for  the  Académie  des 
Sciences,  162,  Letters  exchanged  between  Ste.  Beuve  and  Pasteur,. 
163.  The  Cholera,  165.  Pasteur  at  Compiègne  Palace,  166.  Return 
to  the  Gard,  170  ;  Pasteur's  Collaborators,  170.  Death  of  his  Daughter 
Cécile,  171.  Letter  to  Duruy,  172.  PubHcation  of  the  Studies  orr 
Wine,  1J4.  Pasteur's  Article  on  Claude  Bernard's  Work,  175 > 
Pasteur's  Work  in  the  South  of  France,  i8r.  Letter  from  Duruy,. 
183.    Pasteur  a  Laureate  of  the  Exhibition,  184;  solemn  Distribution 

vi 


CONTENTS  OF   VOLUME   ONE 

of  Rewards  185.  Ste.  Beuve  at  the  Senate,  187.  Disturbance 
at  the  Ecole  Normale,  188.  Pasteur's  Letter  to  Napoleon  III,  192. 
Lecture  on  the  Manufacture  of  Vinegar  at  Orleans,  196.  Council 
of  Scientists  at  the  Tuileries,  202.  Studies  on  Silkworm  Diseases 
(continued),  204.  Heating  of  Wines,  207.  Paralytic  Stroke,  210  ; 
Illness  211  ;  private  Reading,  215.  Enlargement  of  the  Laboratory, 
216.  Pasteur  in  the  South,  218.  Success  of  his  Method  of  opposing 
Silkworm  Diseases,  223.  Pasteur  at  Villa  Vicentina,  Austria,  227. 
Interview  with  Liebig,  231. 


CHAPTER   VII 

I 870-1 872 
Pasteur  in  Strasburg,  232  ;  the  War,  235  ;  Pasteur  at  Arbois,  236. 
The  Académie  des  Sciences  during  the  Siege  of  Paris,  245. 
Pasteur  returns  his  Doctor's  Diploma  to  the  Bonn  Faculty  of 
Medicine,  248.  Retreat  of  Bourbaki's  Army  Corps,  252  ;  Pasteur  at 
Pontarlier,  253,  Pasteur  at  Lyons,  255.  "  Why  France  found  no 
superior  Men  in  the  Time  of  Peril,"  256.  Proposed  Studies,  261. 
Professorship  offered  to  Pasteur  at  Pisa,  263  ;  his  Refusal,  264. 
The  Prussians  at  Arbois,  265.  Pasteur  and  his  Pupil  Raulin,  268. 
Pasteur  at  Clermont  Ferrand  ;  stays  with  his  Pupil  M.  Duclaux, 
272.  Studies  on  Beer,  273.  Visit  to  London  breweries,  276. 
Renewed  Discussions  at  the  Académie  des  Sciences,  285. 


[End  of  Volume  One] 


Vll 


CHAPTER  I 
1822-1843 

THE  origin  of  even  the  humblest  families  can  be  traced 
back  by  persevering  search  through  the  ancient 
parochial  registers.  Thus  the  name  of  Pasteur  is  to  be 
found  written  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century 
in  the  old  registers  of  the  Priory  of  Mouthe,  in  the  province 
of  Franche  Comté.  The  Pasteurs  were  tillers  of  the  soil, 
and  originally  formed  a  sort  of  tribe  in  the  small  village 
of  Reculfoz,  dependent  on  the  Priory,  but  they  gradually 
dispersed  over  the  country. 

The  registers  of  Mièges,  near  Nozeroy,  contain  an  entry 
of  the  marriage  of  Denis  Pasteur  and  Jeanne  David,  dated 
February  9,  1682.  This  Denis,  after  whom  the  line  of 
Pasteur's  ancestors  follows  in  an  unbroken  record,  lived  in 
the  village  of  Plénisette,  where  his  eldest  son  Claude  was 
born  in  1683.  Denis  afterward  sojourned  for  some  time 
in  the  village  of  Douay,  and  ultimately  forsaking  the  valley 
of  Mièges  came  to  Lemuy,  where  he  worked  as  a  miller  for 
Claude  François  Count  of  Udressier,  a  noble  descendant  of 
a  secretary  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 

Lemuy  is  surrounded  by  wide  plains  affording  pasture 
for  herds  of  oxen.  In  the  distance  the  pine  trees  of  the 
forest  of  Joux  stand  close  together,  like  the  ranks  of  an 
immense  army,  their  dark  masses  deepening  the  azure  of 

VOL.  LIB 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

the  horizon.  It  was  in  tliose  widespreading  open  lands 
that  Pasteur's  ancestors  lived.  Near  the  church,  over- 
shadowed by  old  beech  and  lime  trees,  a  tombstone  is  to 
be  found  overgrown  with  grass.  Some  members  of  the 
family  lie  under  that  slab  naively  inscribed:  "Here  lie, 
each  by  the  side  of  the  others  ..." 

In  1 716,  in  the  mill  at  Lemuy,  ruins  of  which  still  exist, 
the  marriage  contract  of  Claude  Pasteur  was  drawn  up 
and  signed  in  the  presence  of  Henry  Girod,  Royal  notary 
of  Salins.  The  father  and  mother  declared  themselves 
unable  to  write,  but  we  have  the  signatures  of  the  affianced 
couple,  Claude  Pasteur  and  Jeanne  Belle,  affixed  to  the 
record  of  the  quaint  betrothal  oath  of  the  time.  This 
Claude  was  in  his  turn  a  miller  at  Lemuy,  though  at  his 
death  in  1746  he  is  only  mentioned  as  a  labourer  in  the 
parish  register.  He  had  eight  children,  the  youngest, 
whose  name  was  Claude  Etienne,  and  who  was  born  in 
the  village  of  Supt,  a  few  kilometres  from  Lemuy,  being 
Louis  Pasteur's  great-grandfather. 

What  ambition,  what  love  of  adventures  induced  him  to 
leave  the  Jura  plains  to  come  down  to  Salins  ?  A  desire 
for  independence  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word.  Accord- 
ing to  the  custom  then  still  in  force  in  Franche  Comté 
(in  contradiction  to  the  name  of  that  province,  as  Voltaire 
truly  remarks),  there  were  yet  some  serfs,  that  is  to  say, 
people  legally  incapable  of  disposing  of  their  goods  or  of 
their  persons.  They  were  part  of  the  possessions  of  a 
nobleman  or  of  the  lands  of  a  convent  or  monastery. 
Denis  Pasteur  and  his  son  had  been  serfs  of  the  Counts  of 
Udressier.  Claude  Etienne  desired  to  be  freed  and  suc- 
ceeded in  achieving  this  at  the  age  of  thirty,  as  is  proved  by 
a  deed,  dated  March  20,  1763,  drawn  up  in  the  presence  of 
the  Royal  notary,  Claude  Jarry.     Messire  Philippe-Marie- 

2 


I822-I843 

François,  Count  of  Udressier,  Lord  of  Ecleux,  Cramans, 
Lemuy  and  other  places,  consented  "  by  special  grace  "  to 
free  Claude  Etienne  Pasteur,  a  tanner,  of  Salins,  his  serf. 
The  deed  stipulated  that  Claude  Etienne  and  his  unborn 
posterity  should  henceforth  be  enfranchised  from  the  stain 
of  mortmain.  Four  gold  pieces  of  twenty-four  livres 
were  paid  then  and  there  in  the  mansion  of  the  Count  of 
Udressier  by  the  said  Pasteur. 

The  following  year,  he  married  Françoise  Lambert. 
After  setting  up  together  a  small  tannery  in  the  Faubourg 
Champtave  they  enjoyed  the  fairy  tale  ideal  of  happiness  : 
they  had  ten  children.  The  third,  Jean  Henri,  through 
whom  this  genealogy  continues,  was  born  in  1769.  On 
June  25,  1779,  letters  giving  Claude  Etienne  Pasteur  the 
freedom  of  the  city  of  Salins  were  delivered  to  him  by 
the  Town  Council. 

Jean  Henri  Pasteur,  in  his  twentieth  year,  went  to 
Besançon  to  seek  his  fortune  as  a  tanner,  but  was  not 
successful.  His  wife,  Gabrielle  Jourdan,  died  at  the  age  of 
twenty,  and  he  married  again,  but  himself  died  at  twenty- 
seven,  leaving  one  little  son  by  his  first  marriage,  Jean 
Joseph  Pasteur,  born  March  16,  1791.  This  child,  who 
was  to  be  Louis  Pasteur's  father,  was  taken  charge  of  by 
his  grandmother  at  Salins  ;  later  on,  his  father's  sisters, 
one  married  to  a  wood  merchant  named  Chamecin,  and  the 
other  to  Philibert  Bourgeois,  Chamecin's  partner,  adopted 
the  orphan.  He  was  carefully  brought  up,  but  without 
much  learning  ;  it  was  considered  sufficient  in  those  days 
to  be  able  to  read  the  Emperor's  bulletins;  the  rest  did 
not  seem  to  matter  very  much.  Besides,  Jean  Joseph  had 
to  earn  his  living  at  the  tanner's  trade,  which  had  been 
his  father's  and  his  grandfather's  before  him. 
Jean  Joseph  was  drawn  as  a  conscript  in  181 1,  and  went 

3 


THE   LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

through  the  Peninsular  War  in  1812  and  1813.  He  be- 
longed to  the  3rd  Regiment  of  the  Line,  whose  mission 
was  to  pursue  in  the  northern  Spanish  provinces  the 
guerillas  of  the  famous  Espoz  y  Mina.  A  legend  grew 
round  this  wonderful  man  ;  he  was  said  to  make  his  own 
gunpowder  in  the  bleak  mountain  passes  ;  his  innumerable 
partisans  were  supplied  with  arms  and  ammunition  by 
the  English  cruisers.  He  dragged  women  and  old  men 
after  him,  and  little  children  acted  as  his  scouts.  Once  or 
twice  however,  in  May,  18 12,  the  terrible  Mina  was  very 
nearly  caught  ;  but  in  July  he  was  again  as  powerful  as 
ever.  The  French  had  to  organize  mobile  columns  to 
again  occupy  the  coast  and  establish  communications  with 
France.  There  was  some  serious  fighting.  Mina  and  his 
followers  were  incessantly  harassing  the  small  French 
contingent  of  the  3rd  and  4th  Regiments,  which  were 
almost  alone.  "  How  many  traits  of  bravery,"  writes 
Tissot,  "will  remain  unknown  which  on  a  larger  field 
would  have  been  rewarded  and  honoured  !  " 

The  records  of  the  3rd  Regiment  allow  us  to  follow  step 
by  step  this  valiant  little  troop,  and  among  the  rank  and 
file,  doing  his  duty  steadily  through  terrible  hardships,  that 
private  soldier  (a  corporal  in  July,  18 12,  and  a  sergeant  in 
October,  18 13)  whose  name  was  Pasteur.  The  battalion 
returned  to  France  at  the  end  of  January,  18 14.  It  formed 
a  part  of  that  Levai  division  which,  numbering  barely 
8,000  men,  had  to  fight  at  Bar-sur-Aube  against  an  army 
of  40,000  enemies.  The  3rd  Regiment  was  called  "  brave 
amongst  the  brave."  "  If  Napoleon  had  had  none  but  such 
soldiers,"  writes  Thiers  in  his  History  of  the  Cmisitlate  and 
the  Empire f  "  the  result  of  that  great  struggle  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  different."  The  Emperor,  touched  by  so 
much  courage,  distributed  crosses  among  the  men.    Pasteur 

4 


I822-I843 

was  made  a  sergeant-major  on  March  to,  18 14,  and  re- 
ceived, two  days  later,  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honour. 

At  the  battle  of  Arcis-sur-Aube  (March  21)  the  Levai 
division  had  again  to  stand  against  50,000  men — Russians, 
Austrians,  Bavarians,  and  Wurtembergers.  Pasteur's 
battalion,  the  ist  of  the  3rd  Regiment,  came  back  to  St. 
Dizier  and  went  on  by  forced  marches  to  Fontainebleau, 
where  Napoleon  had  concentrated  all  his  forces,  arriving 
on  April  4.  The  battalion  was  now  reduced  to  eight  officers 
and  276  men.  The  next  day,  at  twelve  o'clock,  the  Levai 
division  and  the  remnant  of  the  7th  corps  were  gathered 
in  the  yard  of  the  Cheval  Blanc  Inn  and  were  reviewed 
by  Napoleon.  The  attitude  of  these  soldiers,  who  had 
heroically  fought  in  Spain  and  in  France,  and  who  were 
still  offering  their  passionate  devotion,  gave  him  a  few 
moments'  illusion.  Their  enthusiasm  and  acclamations 
contrasted  with  the  coldness,  the  reserve,  the  almost  in- 
subordination of  Generals  like  Ney,  Lefebvre,  Oudinot  and 
MacDonald,  who  had  just  declared  that  to  march  on  Paris 
would  be  folly. 

Marmont's  defection  hastened  events;  the  Emperor, 
seeing  himself  forsaken,  abdicated.  Jean  Joseph  Pasteur 
had  not,  like  Captain  Coignet,  the  sad  privilege  of  witness- 
ing the  Emperor's  farewell,  his  battalion  having  been  sent 
into  the  department  of  Eure  on  April  9.  On  April  23  the 
white  cockade  replaced  the  tricolour. 

On  May  12,  1814,  a  royal  order  gave  to  the  3rd  line 
Regiment  the  name  of  "Régiment  Dauphin";  it  was  re- 
organized at  Douai,  where  Sergeant-major  Pasteur  received 
his  discharge  from  the  service.  He  returned  to  Besançon 
with  grief  and  anger  in  his  heart  :  for  him,  as  for  many 
others  risen  from  the  people,  Napoleon  was  a  demi-god. 
Lists  of  victories,  principles  of  equality,  new  ideas  scattered 

5 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

throughout  the  nations,  had  followed  each  other  in  dazzling 
visions.  It  was  a  cruel  trial  for  half-pay  officers,  old 
sergeants,  grenadiers,  peasant  soldiers,  to  come  down  from 
this  imperial  epic  to  every-day  monotony,  police  supervision, 
and  the  anxieties  of  poverty;  their  wounded  patriotism 
was  embittered  by  feelings  of  personal  himiiliation.  Jean 
Joseph  resigned  himself  to  his  fate  and  went  back  to  his 
former  trade.  The  return  from  Elba  was  a  ray  of  joy  and 
hope  in  his  obscure  life,  only  to  be  followed  by  renewed 
darkness. 

He  was  living  in  the  Faubourg  Champtave  a  solitary  life 
in  accordance  with  his  tastes  and  character  when  this 
solitude  was  interrupted  for  an  instant.  The  Mayor  of 
Salins,  a  knight  of  Malta  and  an  ardent  royalist,  ordered  all 
the  late  soldiers  of  Napoleon,  the  "  brigands  de  la  Loire'"  as 
they  were  now  called,  to  bring  their  sabres  to  the  Mairie. 
Joseph  Pasteur  reluctantly  obeyed  ;  but  when  he  heard 
that  these  glorious  weapons  were  destined  to  police  service, 
and  would  be  used  by  police  agents,  further  submission 
seemed  to  him  intolerable.  He  recognized  his  own  sergeant- 
major's  sabre,  which  had  just  been  given  to  an  agent,  and, 
springing  upon  the  man,  wrested  the  sword  from  him. 
Great  excitement  ensued — a  mixture  of  indignation,  irrita- 
tion and  repressed  enthusiasm  ;  the  numerous  Bonapartists 
in  the  town  began  to  gather  together.  An  Austrian  regi- 
ment was  at  that  time  still  garrisoned  in  the  town.  The 
Mayor  appealed  to  the  colonel,  asking  him  to  repress  this 
disobedience  ;  but  the  Austrian  officer  refused  to  interfere, 
declaring  that  he  both  understood  and  approved  the  military 
feelings  which  actuated  the  ex-sergeant-major.  Pasteur 
was  allowed  to  keep  his  sword,  and  returned  home  accom- 
panied by  sympathizers  who  were  perhaps  more  noisily 
enthusiastic  than  he  could  have  wished. 

6 


I822-I843 

Having  peacefully  resumed  his  work  he  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  a  neighbouring  family  of  gardeners,  whose 
garden  faced  his  tannery  on  the  other  bank  of  the 
"Furieuse,"  a  river  rarely  deserving  its  name.  From 
the  steps  leading  to  the  water  Jean  Joseph  Pasteur  often 
used  to  watch  a  young  girl  working  in  the  garden  at  early 
dawn.  She  soon  perceived  that  the  "old  soldier  "—very 
young  still;  he  was  but  twenty-five  years  old— was  in- 
terested in  her  every  movement.  Her  name  was  Jeanne 
Etiennette  Roqui. 

Her  parents,  natives  of  Marnoz,  a  village  about  four 
kilometres  from  Salins,  belonged  to  one  of  the  most  ancient 
plebeian  families  of  the  country.  The  Salins  archives 
mention  a  Roqui  working  in  vineyards  as  far  back  as  1555, 
and  in  1659  there  were  Roqui  lampmakers  and  plumbers. 
The  members  of  this  family  were  in  general  so  much 
attached  to  each  other  that  "  to  love  like  the  Roqui  "  had 
become  proverbial;  their  wills  and  testaments  mentioned 
legacies  or  gifts  from  brother  to  brother,  uncle  to  nephew. 
In  18 15  the  father  and  mother  of  Jeanne  Etiennette  were 
living  very  quietly  in  the  old  Salins  faubourg.  Their 
daughter  was  modest,  intelligent  and  kind;  Jean  Joseph 
Pasteur  asked  for  her  hand  in  marriage.  They  seemed 
made  for  each  other  ;  the  difference  in  their  natures  only 
strengthened  their  mutual  affection:  he  was  reserved, 
almost  secretive,  with  a  slow  and  careful  mind  apparently 
absorbed  in  his  own  inner  life  ;  she  was  very  active,  full 
of  imagination,  and  ready  enthusiasm. 

The  young  couple  migrated  to  Dole  and  settled  down  in 
the  Rue  des  Tanneurs.  Their  first  child  only  lived  a  few 
months  ;  in  18 18  a  little  daughter  came.  Four  years  later 
in  a  small  room  of  their  humble  home,  on  Friday,  December 
27,  1822,  at  2  a.m.,  Louis  Pasteur  was  born. 

7 


THE   LIFE   OF  PASTEUR 

Two  daughters  were  born  later — one  at  Dole  and  the 
other  at  Marnoz,  in  the  house  of  the  Roqui.  Jean  Joseph 
Pasteur's  mother-in-law,  now  a  widow,  considering  that 
her  great  age  no  longer  allowed  her  to  administer  her 
fortune,  had  divided  all  she  possessed  between  her  son  Jean 
Claude  Roqui,  a  landed  proprietor  at  Marnoz,  and  Jeanne 
Etiennette  her  daughter. 

Thus  called  away  from  Dole  by  family  interests,  Jean 
Joseph  Pasteur  came  to  live  at  Marnoz.  The  place  was 
not  very  favourable  to  his  trade,  though  a  neighbouring 
brook  rendered  the  establishment  of  a  tannery  possible. 
The  house,  though  many  times  altered,  still  bears  the  name 
of  "Maison  Pasteur."  On  one  of  the  inner  doors  the 
veteran,  who  had  a  taste  for  painting,  had  depicted  a 
soldier  in  an  old  uniform  now  become  a  peasant  and  tilling 
the  soil.  This  figure  stands  against  a  background  of  grey 
sky^and  distant  hills  ;  leaning  on  his  spade  the  man  sus- 
pends his  labours  and  dreams  of  past  glories.  It  is  easy  to 
criticize  the  faults  in  the  painting,  but  the  sentimental 
allegory  is  full  of  feeling. 

Louis  Pasteur's  earliest  recollections  dated  from  that 
time  ;  he  could  remember  running  joyously  along  the 
Aiglepierre  road.  The  Pasteur  family  did  not  remain  long 
at  Marnoz.  A  tannery  was  to  let  in  the  neighbourhood  by 
the  town  of  Arbois,  near  the  bridge  which  crosses  the 
Cuisance,  and  only  a  few  kilometres  from  the  source  of  the 
river.  The  house,  behind  its  modest  frontage,  presented 
the  advantage  of  a  yard  where  pits  had  been  dug  for  the 
preparation  of  the  skins.  Joseph  Pasteur  took  this  little 
house  and  settled  there  with  his  wife  and  children. 

Louis  Pasteur  was  sent  at  first  to  the  "  Ecole  Primaire  " 
attached  to  the  college  of  Arbois.  Mutual  teaching  was 
then  the  fashion  ;  scholars  were  divided  into  groups  :  one 


\  I822-I843 

child  taught  the  rudiments  of  reading  to  others,  who  then 
spelt  aloud  in  a  sort  of  sing-song.  The  master,  M.  Renaud, 
went  from  group  to  group  designating  the  monitors.  Louis 
soon  desired  to  possess  this  title,  perhaps  all  the  more  so 
because  he  was  the  smallest  scholar.  But  those  who  would 
decorate  the  early  years  of  Louis  Pasteur  with  wonderful 
legends  would  be  disappointed:  when  a  little  later  he 
attended  the  daily  classes  at  the  Arbois  college  he  belonged 
merely  to  the  category  of  good  average  pupils.  He  took 
several  prizes  without  much  difficulty  ;  he  rather  liked 
buying  new  lesson  books,  on  the  first  page  of  which  he 
proudly  wrote  his  name.  His  father,  who  wished  to  instruct 
himself  as  well  as  to  help  his  son,  helped  him  with  his  home 
preparation.  During  holidays,  the  boy  enjoyed  his  liberty. 
Some  of  his  schoolfellows — Vercel,  Charrié  re,  Guillemin, 
Coulon — called  for  him  to  come  out  with  them  and  he 
followed  them  with  pleasure.  He  delighted  in  fishing 
parties  on  the  Cuisance,  and  much  admired  the  net  throwing 
of  his  comrade  Jules  Vercel.  But  he  avoided  bird  trapping  ; 
the  sight  of  a  wounded  lark  was  painful  to  him. 

The  doors  of  Louis  Pasteur's  home  were  not  usually  open 
except  to  his  schoolboy  friends,  who,  when  they  did  not  fetch 
him  away,  used  to  come  and  play  in  the  tannery  yard  with 
remnants  of  bark,  stray  bits  of  iron,  etc.  Joseph  Pasteur, 
though  not  considered  a  proud  man,  did  not  easily  make 
friends.  His  language  and  manners  were  not  those  of  a 
retired  sergeant;  he  never  spoke  of  his  campaigns  and 
never  entered  a  café.  On  Sundays,  wearing  a  military- 
looking  frock  coat,  spotlessly  clean  and  adorned  with  the 
showy  ribbon  of  the  Legion  of  Honour  (worn  very  large  at 
that  time),  he  invariably  walked  out  towards  the  road 
from  Arbois  to  Besançon.  This  road  passes  between  vine- 
planted  hills.    On  the  left,  on  a  wooded  height  above  the 

9 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

wide  plain  towards  Dole,  the  ruins  of  the  Vadans  tower 
invest  the  whole  landscape  with  a  lingering  glamour  of 
heroic  times.  In  these  solitary  meditations,  he  dwelt  more 
anxiously  on  the  future  than  on  present  difiSculties,  the 
latter  being  of  little  account  in  this  hard-working  family. 
What  would  become  of  this  son  of  his,  conscientious  and 
studious,  but,  though  already  thirteen  years  old,  with  no 
apparent  preference  for  anything  but  drawing  ?  The  epithet 
of  artist  given  to  Louis  Pasteur  b}^  his  Arboisian  friends 
only  half  pleased  the  paternal  vanity.  And  yet  it  is 
impossible  not  to  be  struck  by  the  realism  of  his  first 
original  effort,  a  very  bold  pastel  drawing.  This  pastel 
represents  Louis'  mother,  one  morning  that  she  was  going  to 
market,  with  a  white  cap  and  a  blue  and  green  tartan  shawl. 
Her  son  insisted  on  painting  her  just  as  she  was.  The 
portrait  is  full  of  sincerity  and  not  unlike  the  work 
of  a  conscientious  pre-Raphaelite.  The  powerful  face  is 
illumined  by  a  pair  of  clear  straightforward  eyes. 

Though  they  did  not  entertain  mere  acquaintances,  the 
husband  and  wife  were  happy  to  receive  those  who  seemed 
to  them  worthy  of  affection  or  esteem  by  reason  of  some 
superiority  of  the  mind  or  of  the  heart.  In  this  way  they 
formed  a  friendship  with  an  old  army  doctor  then  practis- 
ing in  the  Arbois  hospital,  Dr.  Dumont,  a  man  who  studied 
for  the  sake  of  learning  and  who  did  a  great  deal  of  good 
while  avoiding  popularit}". 

Another  familiar  friend  was  a  philosopher  named 
Bousson  de  Mairet.  An  indefatigable  reader,  he  never 
went  out  without  a  book  or  pamphlet  in  his  pocket.  He 
spent  his  life  in  compiling  from  isolated  facts  annals  in 
which  the  characteristics  of  the  Francs-Comtois,  and  especi- 
ally the  Arboisians,  were  reproduced  in  detail,  with  labour 
worthy  of  a  Benedictine  monk.     He  often  came  to  spend  a 

10 


I822-I843 

quiet  evening  with  the  Pasteur  family,  who  used  to  question 
him  and  to  listen  to  his  interesting  records  of  that  strange 
Arboisian  race,  difficult  to  understand,  presenting  as  it 
does  a  mixture  of  heroic  courage  and  that  slightly  ironical 
good  humour  which  Parisians  and  Southerners  mistake  for 
naiveness.  Arboisians  never  distrust  themselves,  but  are 
sceptical  where  others  are  concerned.  They  are  proud  oi 
their  local  history,  and  even  of  their  rodomontades. 

For  instance,  on  August  4,  1830,  they  sent  an  address  to 
the  Parisians  to  express  their  indignation  against  the 
"  Ordonnances  "  ^  and  to  assure  them  that  all  the  available 
population  of  Arbois  was  ready  to  fly  to  the  assistance  of 
Paris.  In  April,  1834,  a  lawyer's  clerk,  passing  one 
evening  through  Arbois  by  the  coach,  announced  to  a 
few  gardes  nationaux  who  were  standing  about  that  the 
Republic  was  proclaimed  at  Lyons.  Arbois  immediately 
rose  in  arms  ;  the  insurgents  armed  themselves  with  guns 
from  the  Hôtel  de  Ville.  Louis  Pasteur  watched  the 
arrival  from  Besançon  of  200  grenadiers,  four  squadrons 
of  light  cavalry,  and  a  small  battery  of  artillery  sent  to 
reduce  the  rebels.  The  sous-préfet  of  Poligny  having 
asked  the  rioters  who  were  their  leaders,  they  answered 
with  one  voice,  "  We  are  all  leaders."  A  few  days  later 
the  great,  the  good  news  was  published  in  all  the  news- 
papers :  "Arbois,  Lyons,  and  Paris  are  pacified."  The 
Arboisians  called    their    neighbours   "the    Braggarts    of 

*  Ordotmatices  du  26  Jîàllef,  1830.  A  royal  Decree  issued  by  Charles  X 
under  the  advice  of  his  minister,  Prince  de  Polignac  ;  it  was  based  on  a 
misreading  of  one  of  the  articles  of  the  Charter  of  18 14,  and  dissolved 
the  new  Chamber  of  Deputies  before  it  had  even  assembled  ;  it  sup- 
pressed the  freedom  of  the  Press  and  created  a  new  electoral  system 
to  the  advantage  of  the  royalist  party.  These  ordonnances  were  the 
cause  of  the  1830  Revolution,  which  placed  Louis  Philippe  of  Orleans  on 
the  Throne.    [Trans.] 

II 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Salins,"  probably  with  the  ingenious  intention  of  turning 
such  a  well-deserved  accusation  from  themselves. 

Louis  Pasteur,  whose  mind  already  had  a  serious  bent, 
preferred  to  these  recent  anecdotes  such  historical  records 
as  that  of  the  siege  of  Arbois  under  Henry  IV,  when  the 
Arboisians  held  out  for  three  whole  days  against  a  besieg- 
ing army  of  25,000  men.  His  childish  imagination,  after 
being  worked  upon  by  these  stories  of  local  patriotism, 
eagerly  seized  upon  ideals  of  a  higher  patriotism,  and  fed 
upon  the  glory  of  the  French  people  as  represented  by  the 
conquests  of  the  Empire. 

He  watched  his  parents,  day  by  day  working  under  dire 
necessity  and  ennobling  their  weary  task  by  considering 
their  children's  education  almost  as  essential  as  their  daily 
bread  ;  and,  as  in  all  things  the  father  and  mother  took  an 
interest  in  noble  motives  and  principles,  their  material 
life  was  lightened  and  illumined  by  their  moral  life. 

One  more  friend,  the  headmaster  of  Arbois  college, 
M.  Romanet,  exerted  a  decisive  influence  on  Louis  Pasteur's 
career.  This  master,  v/ho  was  constantly  trying  to  elevate 
the  mind  and  heart  of  his  pupils,  inspired  Louis  with  great 
admiration  as  well  as  with  respect  and  gratitude.  Romanet 
considered  that  whilst  instruction  doubled  a  man's  value, 
education,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word,  increased  "it 
tenfold.  He  was  the  first  to  discover  in  Louis  Pasteur  the 
hidden  spark  that  had  not  yet  revealed  itself  by  any 
brilliant  success  in  the  hardworking  schoolboy.  Louis' 
mind  worked  so  carefully  that  he  was  considered  slow; 
he  never  aflirmed  anything  of  which  he  was  not  absolutely 
sure  ;  but  with  all  his  strength  and  caution  he  also  had 
vivid  imaginative  faculties. 

Romanet,  during  their  strolls  round  the  college  play- 
ground, took  pleasure  in  awakening  with  an  educator's 

12 


I822-I843 

interest  the  leading  qualities  of  this  young  nature — circum- 
spection and  enthusiasm.  The  boy,  who  had  been  sitting 
over  his  desk  with  all-absorbing  attention,  now  listened 
with  sparkling  eyes  to  the  kind  teacher  talking  to  him  of 
his  future  and  opening  to  him  the  prospect  of  the  great 
Ecole  Normale} 

An  officer  of  the  Paris  municipal  guard.  Captain  Barbier, 
who  always  came  to  Arbois  when  on  leave,  offered  to  look 
after  Louis  Pasteur  if  he  were  sent  to  Paris.  But  Joseph 
Pasteur — in  spite  of  all — hesitated  to  send  his  son,  not  yet 
sixteen  years  old,  a  hundred  leagues  away  from  home. 
Would  it  not  be  wiser  to  let  him  go  to  Besançon  college  and 
come  back  to  Arbois  college  as  professor  ?  What  could  be 
more  desirable  than  such  a  position  ?  Surely  Paris  and  the 
Ecole  Normale  were  quite  unnecessary!  The  question  of 
money  also  had  to  be  considered. 

"  That  need  not  trouble  you,"  said  Captain  Barbier.  "  In 
the  Latin  Quarter,  Impasse  des  Feuillantines,  there  is  a 
preparatory  school,  of  which  the  headmaster,  M.  Barbet,  is 
a  Franc-Comtois.  He  will  do  for  your  son  what  he  has 
done  for  many  boys  from  his  own  country — that  is,  take 
him  at  reduced  school  fees." 

Joseph  Pasteur  at  last  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded, 
and  Louis'  departure  was  fixed  for  the  end  of  October,  1838. 
He  was  not  going  alone  :  Jules  Vercel,  his  dear  school 

^  Ecole  Normale  Supérieure,  under  the  supervision  of  the  Ministry  of 
Public  Instruction  and  Fine  Arts,  founded  in  1808  by  Napoleon  I,  with 
the  object  of  training  young  professors.  Candidates  must  (i)  be  older 
than  eighteen  and  younger  than  twenty-one  ;  (2)  pass  one  written  and 
one  viva  voce  examination  ;  (3)  be  already  in  possession  of  their  diploma 
as  bachelier  of  science  or  of  letters,  according  to  the  branch  of  studies 
which  they  wish  to  take  up  ;  and  (4)  sign  an  engagement  for  ten  years' 
work  in  public  instruction.  The  professors  of  the  Ecole  Normale  take 
the  title  of  Maître  des  Conférences.    [Trans.] 

13 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

friend,  was  also  going  to  Paris  to  work  for  his  "  bac- 
calauréat." ^  This  youth  had  a  most  happy  temperament  : 
unambitious,  satisfied  with  each  day's  work  as  it  came,  he 
took  pride  and  pleasure  in  the  success  of  others,  and 
especially  in  that  of  "  Louis,"  as  he  then  and  always 
fraternally  called  his  friend.  The  two  boys'  friendship 
went  some  way  to  alleviate  the  natural  anxieties  felt  by 
both  families.  The  slowness  and  difficulty  of  travelling  in 
those  days  gave  to  farewells  a  sort  of  solemn  sadness; 
they  were  repeated  twenty  times  whilst  the  horses  were 
being  harnessed  and  the  luggage  hoisted  on  to  the  coach  in 
the  large  courtyard  of  the  "  Hôtel  de  la  Poste."  On  that 
bleak  October  morning,  amidst  a  shower  of  rain  and  sleet, 
the  two  lads  had  to  sit  under  the  tarpaulin  behind  the 
driver  ;  there  were  no  seats  left  inside  or  under  the  hood. 
In  spite  of  Vercel's  habit  of  seeing  the  right  side  of  things 
and  his  joy  in  thinking  that  in  forty-eight  hours  he,  the 
country  boy,  would  see  the  wonders  of  Paris — in  spite 
of  Pasteur's  brave  resolve  to  make  the  most  of  his  un- 
expected opportunities  of  study,  of  the  now  possible 
entrance  into  the  "  Ecole  Normale  '' — both  looked  with 
heavy  hearts  at  the  familiar  scene  they  were  leaving 
behind  them — their  homes,  the  square  tower  of  Arbois 
church,  the  heights  of  the  Ermitage  in  the  grey  distance. 
Every  native  of  Jura,  though  he  affects  to  feel  nothing 

^  Baccalauréat  (low  Latin  bachalariatus\  first  degree  taken  in  a  French 
Faculty  ;  the  next  is  licence^  and  the  next  doctorate.  It  is  much  more 
elementary  than  a  bachelor's  degree  in  an  English  university.  There 
are  two  baccalauréats  :  (i)  the  baccalauréat  h  lettres  required  of  candi- 
dates for  the  Faculties  of  Medicine  and  of  Law,  to  the  Ecole  Normale 
Supérieure  and  to  several  public  offices  ;  (2)  the  baccalauréat  h  sciences., 
required  for  admission  to  the  Schools  of  Medicine  and  of  Pharmacy,  to 
the  Ecole  Normale  Supérieure  (scientific  section),  and  the  Polytechnic, 
Military  and  Foresters'  Schools.    [Trans.] 

14 


I822-I843 

of  the  kind,  has,  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  a  strong  feeling 
of  attachment  for  the  corner  of  the  world  where  he  has 
spent  his  childhood  ;  as  soon  as  he  forsakes  his  native  soil 
his  thoughts  return  to  it  with  a  painful  and  persistent 
charm.  The  two  boys  did  not  take  much  interest  in  the 
towns  where  the  coach  stopped  to  change  horses,  Dole, 
Dijon,  Auxerre,  Joigny,  Sens,  Fontainebleau,  etc. 

When  Louis  Pasteur  reached  Paris  he  did  not  feel  like 
Balzac's  student  hero,  confidently  defying  the  great  city. 
In  spite  of  the  strong  will  already  visible  in  his  pensive 
features,  his  grief  was  too  deep  to  be  reasoned  away.  No 
one  at  first  suspected  this  ;  he  was  a  reserved  youth,  with 
none  of  the  desire  to  talk  which  leads  weak  natures  to 
ease  their  sorrows  by  pouring  them  out  ;  but,  when  all  was 
quiet  in  the  Impasse  des  Feuillantines  and  his  sleeping 
comrades  could  not  break  in  upon  his  regrets,  he  would  lie 
awake  for  hours  thinking  of  his  home  and  repeating  the 
mournful  line — 

How  endless  unto  watchful  anguish 
Night  doth  seem. 

The  students  of  the  Barbet  school  attended  the  classes 
of  the  Lycée  St.  Louis.  In  spite  of  his  willingness  and  his 
passionate  love  of  study,  Louis  was  overcome  with  despair 
at  being  away  from  home.  Never  was  homesickness  more 
acute.  "  If  I  could  only  get  a  whiff  of  the  tannery  yard," 
he  would  say  to  Jules  Vercel,  "  I  feel  I  should  be  cured." 
M.  Barbet  endeavoured  in  vain  to  amuse  and  turn  the 
thoughts  of  this  lad  of  fifteen  so  absorbed  in  his  sorrow. 
At  last  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  warn  the  parents  of  this 
state  of  mind,  which  threatened  to  become  morbid. 

One  morning  in  November  Louis  Pasteur  was  told  with 
an  air  of  mystery  that  he  was  wanted.     "  They  are  waiting 

15 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

for  you  close  by,"  said  the  messenger,  indicating  a  small 
café  at  the  corner  of  the  street.  Louis  entered  and  found  a 
man  sitting  at  a  small  table  at  the  back  of  the  shop,  his 
face  in  his  hands.  It  was  his  father.  *'  I  have  come  to 
fetch  you,"  he  said  simply.  No  explanations  were  neces- 
sary ;  the  father  and  son  understood  each  other's  longings. 

What  took  place  in  Pasteur's  mind  when  he  found  him- 
self again  at  Arbois  ?  After  the  first  few  days  of  relief 
and  joy,  did  he  feel,  when  he  went  back  to  Arbois  college, 
any  regret,  not  to  say  remorse,  at  not  having  overcome  his 
homesickness  ?  Was  he  discouraged  by  the  prospect  of  a 
restricted  career  in  that  small  town  ?  Little  is  known  of 
that  period  when  his  will  had  been  mastered  by  his  feelings  ; 
but  from  the  indecision  of  his  daily  life  we  may  hazard  a 
guess  at  the  disquieted  state  of  his  mind  at  this  time.  At 
the  beginning  of  that  year  (1839)  he  returned  for  a  time  to 
his  early  tastes  ;  he  went  back  to  his  coloured  chalks,  left 
aside  for  the  last  eighteen  months,  ever  since  one  holiday 
time  when  he  had  drawn  Captain  Barbier,  proudly  wearing 
his  uniform,  and  with  the  high  colour  of  excellent  health. 

He  soon  got  beyond  the  powers  of  his  drawing  master, 
M.  Pointurier,  a  good  man  who  does  not  seem  to  have  seen 
any  scientific  possibilities  in  the  art  of  drawing. 

Louis'  pastel  drawings  soon  formed  a  portrait  gallery  of 
friends.  An  old  cooper  of  seventy.  Father  Gaidot,  born  at 
Dole,  but  now  living  at  Arbois,  had  his  turn.  Gaidot  ap- 
pears in  a  festive  costume,  a  blue  coat  and  a  yellow  waist- 
coat, very  picturesque  with  his  wrinkled  forehead  and 
close-shaven  cheeks.  Then  there  are  all  the  members  of  a 
family  named  Roch.  The  father  and  the  son  are  drawn 
carefully,  portraits  such  as  are  often  seen  in  country 
villages;  but  the  two  daughters  Lydia  and  Sophia  are 
more  delicately  pencilled  ;  they  live  again  in  the  youthful 

16 


I822-I843 

grace  of  their  twenty  summers.  Then  we  have  a  notary, 
the  wide  collar  of  a  frock  coat  framing  his  rubicund  face  ; 
a  young  woman  in  white  ;  an  old  nun  of  eighty-two  in  a 
fluted  cap,  wearing  a  white  hood  and  an  ivory  cross  ;  a 
little  boy  of  ten  in  a  velvet  suit,  a  melancholy-looking 
child,  not  destined  to  grow  to  manhood.  Pasteur  obligingly 
drew  any  one  who  wished  to  have  a  portrait.  Among  all 
these  pastels,  two  are  really  remarkable.  The  first  repre- 
sents, in  his  official  garb,  a  M.  Blondeau,  registrar  of  mort- 
gages, whose  gentle  and  refined  features  are  perfectly 
delineated.  The  other  is  the  portrait  of  a  mayor  of  Arbois, 
M.  Pareau  ;  he  wears  his  silver-embroidered  uniform,  with 
a  white  stock.  The  cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honour  and  the 
tricolour  scarf  are  discreetly  indicated.  The  whole  interest 
is  centred  in  the  smiling  face,  with  hair  brushed  up  à  la 
Louis  Philippe,  and  blue  eyes  harmonizing  with  a  blue 
ground. 

The  compliments  of  this  local  dignitary  and  Romanet's 
renewed  counsels  at  the  end  of  the  year — when  Pasteur 
took  more  school  prizes  than  he  could  carry — reawakened 
within  him  the  ambition  for  the  Ecole  Normale. 

There  was  no  "  philosophy  "  ^  class  in  the  college  of  Arbois, 

^  Philosophie  class.  In  French  secondary  schools  or  lycées  the  forms 
or  classes,  in  Pasteur's  time,  were  arranged  as  follows,  starting  from  the 
bottom — 

1°    huitième. 

2°    septième. 

6°    sixième  (French  grammar  was  begun). 

5°    cinquième  (Latin  was  begun). 

6°    quatrième  (Greek  was  begun). 

7°    troisième. 

8°    seconde. 


9°     Mathématiques  élémentaires.  Rhétorique. 

10°     Mathématiques  spéciales.  Philosophie. 

The  seconde  students  who  intended  to  pass  their  baccalauréat  h  sciences 

VOL.   I.  17  C 


THE   LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

and  a  return  to  Paris  seemed  formidable.  Pasteur  resolved 
to  go  to  the  college  at  Besançon,  where  he  could  go  on  with 
his  studies,  pass  his  baccalauréat  and  then  prepare  for  the 
examinations  of  the  Ecole  Normale.  Besançon  is  only  forty 
kilometres  from  Arbois,  and  Joseph  Pasteur  was  in  the 
habit  of  going  there  several  times  a  year  to  sell  some  of 
his  prepared  skins.  This  was  by  far  the  wisest  solution  of 
the  problem. 

On  his  arrival  at  the  Royal  College  of  Franche  Comté, 
Pasteur  found  himself  under  a  philosophy  master,  M. 
Daunas,  who  had  been  a  student  at  the  Ecole  Normale  and 
was  a  graduate  of  the  University;  he  was  young,  full 
of  eloquence,  proud  of  his  pupils,  of  awakening  their 
faculties  and  directing  their  minds.  The  science  master, 
M.  Darlay,  did  not  inspire  the  same  enthusiasm  ;  he  was  an 
elderly  man  and  regretted  the  good  old  times  when  pupils 
were  less  inquisitive.  Pasteur's  questions  often  embarrassed 
him.  Louis'  reputation  as  a  painter  satisfied  him  no  lon- 
ger, though  the  portrait  he  drew  of  one  of  his  comrades 
was  exhibited.  "  All  this  does  not  lead  to  the  Ecole  Nor- 
male," he  wrote  to  his  parents  in  January,  1840.  "  I  prefer 
a  first  place  at  college  to  10,000  praises  in  the  course  of 
conversation.  .  .  .  We  shall  meet  on  Sunday,  dear  father, 
for  I  believe  there  is  a  fair  on  Monday.  If  we  see  M.  Daunas, 
we  will  speak  to  him  of  the  Ecole  Normale.  Dear  sisters, 
let  me  tell  you  again,  work  hard,  love  each  other.  When 
one  is  accustomed  to  work  it  is  impossible  to  do  without  it  ; 
besides,  everything  in  this  world  depends  on  that.  Armed 
with  science,  one  can  rise  above  all  one's  fellows.  .  .  .  But 
I  hope  all  this  good  advice  to  you  is  superfluous,  and  I  am 

went  into  the  mathématiques  élémentaires  class,  whilst  those  who  were 
destined  for  letters  or  the  law  entered  the  rhétorique  class,  from  which 
they  went  on  to  the  philosophie  class.    [Trans.] 

18 


I822-I843 

sure  you  spend  many  moments  every  day  learning  your 
grammar.  Love  each  other  as  I  love  you,  while  avç-aiting 
the  happy  day  when  I  shall  be  received  at  the  Ecole  Nor- 
male." Thus  was  his  whole  Hfe  filled  with  tenderness  as 
well  as  with  work.  He  took  the  degree  of  "  bachelier  es 
lettres  "  on  August  29,  1840.  The  three  examiners,  doc- 
tors "es  lettres,"  put  down  his  answers  as  "  good  in  Greek 
on  Plutarch  and  in  Latin  on  Virgil,  good  also  in  rhetoric, 
medicine,  history  and  geography,  good  in  philosophy,  very 
good  in  elementary  science,  good  in  French  composition." 

At  the  end  of  the  summer  hoHdays  the  headmaster  of 
the  Royal  College  of  Besançon,  M.  Répécaud,  sent  for  him 
and  offered  him  the  post  of  preparation  master.  Certain 
administrative  changes  and  an  increased  number  of  pupils 
were  the  reason  of  this  offer,  which  proved  the  master's 
esteem  for  Pasteur's  moral  qualities,  his  first  degree  not 
having  been  obtained  with  any  particular  brilliancy. 

The  youthful  master  was  to  be  remunerated  from  the 
month  of  January,  1841.  A  student  in  the  class  of  special 
mathematics,  he  was  his  comrades'  mentor  during  prepara- 
tion time.  They  obeyed  him  without  difficulty  ;  simple  and 
yet  serious-minded,  his  sense  of  individual  dignity  made 
authority  easy  to  him.  Ever  thoughtful  of  his  distant 
home,  he  strengthened  the  influence  of  the  father  and 
mother  in  the  education  of  his  sisters,  who  had  not  so  great 
a  love  of  industry  as  he  had.  On  November  i,  1840— he 
was  not  eighteen  yet — pleased  to  hear  that  they  were 
making  some  progress,  he  wrote  the  following,  which, 
though  slightly  pedantic,  reveals  the  warmth  of  his  feelings 
— "My  dear  parents,  my  sisters,  when  I  received  at  the 
same  time  the  two  letters  that  you  sent  me  I  thought  that 
something  extraordinary  had  happened,  but  such  was  not 
the  case.    The  second  letter  you  wrote  me  gave  me  much 

19 


THE  LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

pleasure  ;  it  tells  me  that — perhaps  for  the  first  time — my 
sisters  have  willed.  To  will  is  a  great  thing,  dear  sisters, 
for  Action  and  Work  usually  follow  Will,  and  almost 
always  Work  is  accompanied  by  success.  These  three 
things,  Will,  Work,  Success,  fill  human  existence.  Will 
opens  the  door  to  success  both  brilliant  and  happy  ;  Work 
passes  these  doors,  and  at  the  end  of  the  journey  Success 
comes  to  crown  one's  efforts.  And  so,  my  dear  sisters,  if 
your  resolution  is  firm,  your  task,  be  it  what  it  ma}^,  is 
already  begun  ;  3'ou  have  but  to  walk  forward,  it  will 
achieve  itself.  If  perchance  you  should  falter  during  the 
journey,  a  hand  would  be  there  to  support  you.  If  that 
should  be  wanting,  God,  who  alone  could  take  that  hand 
from  you,  would  Himself  accomplish  its  w^ork.  .  .  .  May 
my  words  be  felt  and  understood  by  j'ou,  dearest  sisters. 
I  impress  them  on  your  hearts.  May  they  be  your  guide. 
Farewell.     Your  brother." 

The  letters  he  wrote,  the  books  he  loved,  the  friends  he 
chose,  bear  witness  to  the  character  of  Pasteur  in  those 
days  of  early  youth.  As  he  now  felt,  after  the  discourag- 
ing trial  he  had  gone  through  in  Paris,  that  the  develop- 
ment of  the  will  should  hold  the  first  place  in  education,  he 
applied  all  his  efforts  to  the  bringing  out  of  this  leading 
force.  He  was  already  grave  and  exceptionally  matured  ; 
he  saw  in  the  perfecting  of  self  the  great  law  of  man,  and 
nothing  that  could  assist  in  that  improvement  seemed  to 
him  without  importance.  Books  read  in  earl}^  life  appeared 
to  him  to  have  an  almost  decisive  influence.  In  his  eyes  a 
good  book  was  a  good  action  constantly  renewed,  a  bad  one 
an  incessant  and  irreparable  fault. 

There  lived  at  that  time  in  Franche  Comté  an  elderly 
writer,  whom  Sainte  Beuve  considered  as  the  ideal  of  the 
upright  man  and  of  the  man  of  letters.    His  name  was 

20 


I 822- I 843 

Joseph  Droz,  and  his  moral  doctrine  was  that  vanity  is  the 
cause  of  many  wrecked  and  aimless  lives,  that  modera- 
tion is  a  form  of  wisdom  and  an  element  of  happiness,  and 
that  most  men  sadden  and  trouble  their  lives  by  causeless 
worry  and  agitation.  His  own  life  was  an  example  of  his 
precepts  of  kindliness  and  patience,  and  was  filled  to  the 
utmost  with  all  the  good  that  a  pure  literary  conscience 
can  bestow;  he  was  all  benevolence  and  cordiality.  It 
seemed  natural  that  he  should  publish  one  after  another 
numberless  editions  of  his  Essay  on  the  Art  of  being  Happy. 

"  I  have  still,"  wrote  Pasteur  to  his  parents,  "  that  little 
volume  of  M.  Droz  which  he  was  kind  enough  to  lend  me. 
I  have  never  read  anything  wiser,  more  moral  or  more 
virtuous.  I  have  also  another  of  his  works  ;  nothing  was 
ever  better  written.  At  the  end  of  the  year  I  shall  bring 
you  back  these  books.  One  feels  in  reading  them  an 
irresistible  charm  which  penetrates  the  soul  and  fills  it 
with  the  most  exalted  and  generous  feelings.  There  is  not 
a  word  of  exaggeration  in  what  I  am  writing.  Indeed  I 
take  his  books  with  me  to  the  services  on  Sundays  to  read 
them,  and  I  believe  that  in  so  acting,  in  spite  of  all  that 
thoughtless  bigotry  might  say,  I  am  conforming  to  the 
very  highest  religious  ideas." 

Those  ideas  Droz  might  have  summarized  simply  by 
Christ's  words,  ''Love  ye  one  another."  But  this  was  a 
time  of  circumlocution.  Young  people  demanded  of  books, 
of  discourses,  of  poetry,  a  sonorous  echo  of  their  own  secret 
feelings.  In  the  writings  of  the  Besançon  moralist,  Pasteur 
saw  a  religion  such  as  he  himself  dreamed  of,  a  religion 
free  from  all  controversy  and  all  intolerance,  a  religion  of 
peace,  love  and  devotion. 

A  little  later,  Silvio  Pellico's  Miei  Prigioni  developed  in 
him  an  emotion  which  answered  to  his  instinctive  sympathy 

21 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

for  the  sorrows  of  others.  He  wrote  advising  his  sisters  to 
read  "  that  interesting  work,  where  you  breathe  with  every 
page  a  religious  perfume  which  exalts  and  ennobles  the 
soul."  In  reading  Miei  Pvigioni  his  sisters  would  light 
upon  a  passage  on  fraternal  love  and  all  the  deep  feelings 
which  it  represents. 

"For  my  sisters,"  he  wrote  in  another  letter,  "  I  bought, 
a  few  days  ago,  a  very  pretty  book  ;  I  mean  by  very  pretty 
something  very  interesting.  It  is  a  little  volume  which 
took  the  Montyon  ^  prize  a  few  years  ago,  and  it  is  called, 
Picciola.  How  could  it  have  deserved  the  Montyon  prize," 
he  added,  with  an  edif5ing  respect  for  the  decisions  of  the 
Academj^,  "  if  the  reading  of  it  were  not  of  great  value  ?  " 

"  You  know,"  he  announced  to  his  parents  when  his 
appointment  was  definitely  settled,  "  that  a  supplementary 
master  has  board  and  lodging  and  300  francs  a  year!" 
This  sum  appeared  to  him  enormous.  He  added,  on 
January  20 :  "At  the  end  of  this  month  mone3^  will 
already  be  owing  to  me  ;  and  3^et  I  assure  you  I  am  not 
really  worth  it." 

Pleased  with  this  situation,  though  such  a  modest  one, 
full  of  eagerness  to  work,  he  wrote  in  the  same  letter  :  "  I 
find  it  an  excellent  thing  to  have  a  room  of  my  own  ;  I  have 
more  time  to  myself,  and  I  am  not  interrupted  by  those 
endless  little  things  that  the  bo5"s  have  to  do,  and  which  take 
up  a  good  deal  of  time.  Indeed  I  am  already  noticing  a 
change  in  my  work  :  difficulties  are  getting  smoothed  away 

^  Prix  Montyon  :  a  series  of  prizes  founded  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  by  Baron  de  Montyon,  a  distinguished  philanthropist, 
and  conferred  on  literary  works  for  their  moral  worth,  and  on  individuals 
for  acts  of  private  virtue  or  self-sacrifice.  The  laureates  are  chosen  every 
year  by  the  Académie  Française,  and  in  this  way  many  obscure  heroes 
are  deservedly  rewarded,  and  many  excellent  books  brought  to  public 
notice.    [Trans.] 

22 


I822-I843 

because  I  have  more  time  to  give  to  overcoming  them  ;  in 
fact  I  am  beginning  to  hope  that  by  working  as  I  do  and 
shall  continue  to  do  I  may  be  received  with  a  good  rank  at 
the  Ecole.  But  do  not  think  that  I  am  overworking  myself 
at  all  ;  I  take  every  recreation  necessary  to  my  health." 

Besides  his  ordinary  work,  he  had  been  entrusted  with 
the  duty  of  giving  some  help  in  mathematics  and  physical 
science  to  the  youths  who  were  reading  for  their  baccalau- 
réat. 

As  if  reproaching  himself  with  being  the  only  member  of 
the  family  who  enjoyed  the  opportunity  of  learning,  he 
offered  to  pay  for  the  schooling  of  his  youngest  sister 
Josephine  in  a  girls'  college  at  Lons-le-Saulnier.  He 
wrote,  "  I  could  easily  do  it  by  giving  private  lessons.  I 
have  already  refused  to  give  some  to  several  boys  at  20  or 
25  fr.  a  month.  I  refused  because  I  have  not  too  much 
time  to  give  to  my  work."  But  he  was  quite  disposed  to 
waive  this  motive  in  deference  to  superior  judgment.  His 
parents  promised  to  think  over  this  fraternal  wish,  without 
however  accepting  his  generous  suggestion,  offering  even  to 
supplement  his  small  salary  of  24  francs  a  month  by  a  little 
allowance,  in  case  he  wished  for  a  few  private  lessons  to 
prepare  himself  more  thoroughly  for  the  Ecole  Normale. 
They  quite  recognized  his  right  to  advise  ;  and — as  he 
thought  that  his  sister  should  prepare  herself  beforehand 
for  the  class  she  was  to  enter — he  wrote  to  his  mother  with 
filial  authority,  "  Josephine  should  work  a  good  deal  until 
the  end  of  the  year,  and  I  would  recommend  to  Mother  that 
^he  should  not  continually  be  sent  out  on  errands  ;  she  must 
have  time  to  work." 

Michelet,  in  his  recollections,  tells  of  his  hours  of  inti- 
macy with  a  college  friend  named  Poinsat,  and  thus  ex- 
presses himself:  "  It  was  an  immense,  an  insatiable  longing 

23 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

for  confidences,  for  mutual  revelations."  Pasteur  felt 
something  of  the  sort  for  Charles  Chappuis,  a  philosophie 
student  at  Besançon  college.  He  was  the  son  of  a  notary 
at  St.  Vit,  one  of  those  old-fashioned  provincial  notaries 
who,  by  the  dignity  of  their  lives,  their  spirit  of  wisdom,  the 
perpetual  preoccupation  of  their  duty,  inspired  their  chil- 
dren with  a  sense  of  responsibility.  His  son  had  even  sur- 
passed his  father's  hopes.  Of  this  generous,  gentle-faced 
youth  there  exists  a  lithograph  signed  "Louis  Pasteur." 
A  book  entitled  Les  Graveurs  du  XIX""'  Siècle  mentions  this 
portrait,  giving  Pasteur  an  unexpected  form  of  celebrity. 
Before  the  Graveurs,  the  Guide  de  V Amateur  des  Œuvres 
d^Art  had  already  spoken  of  a  pastel  drawing  discovered 
in  the  United  States  near  Boston.  It  represents  another 
schoolfellow  of  Pasteur's,  who,  far  from  his  native  land, 
carefully  preserved  the  portrait  of  Chappuis  as  well  as  his 
own.  Everything  that  friendship  can  give  in  strength  and 
disinterestedness,  everything  that,  according  to  Montaigne 
— who  knew  more  about  it  even  than  Michelet — "  makes 
souls  merge  into  each  other  so  that  the  seam  which 
originally  joined  them  disappears,"  was  experienced  by 
Pasteur  and  Chappuis.  Filial  piety,  brotherly  solicitude, 
friendly  confidences — Pasteur  knew  the  sweetness  of  all 
these  early  human  joys  ;  the  whole  of  his  life  was  permeated 
with  them.  The  books  he  loved  added  to  this  flow  of 
generous  emotions.  Chappuis  watched  and  admired  this 
original  nature,  which,  with  a  rigid  mind  made  for  scientific 
research  and  always  seeking  the  proof  of  everything,  yet 
read  Lamartine's  Meditations  with  enthusiasm.  Differing 
in  this  from  many  science  students,  who  are  indifferent  to 
literature — ^just  as  some  literature  students  affect  to  disdain 
science — Pasteur  kept  for  literature  a  place  apart.  He 
looked  upon  it  as  a  guide  for  general  ideas.    Sometimes  he 

24 


I 822- T 843 

would  praise  to  excess  some  writer  or  orator  merely  because 
he  had  found  in  one  page  or  in  one  sentence  the  expression 
of  an  exalted  sentiment.  It  was  with  Chappuis  that  he 
exchanged  his  thoughts,  and  together  they  mapped  out  a 
life  in  common.  When  Chappuis  went  to  Paris,  the  better 
to  prepare  himself  for  the  Ecole  Normale,  Pasteur  felt  an 
ardent  desire  to  go  with  him.  Chappuis  wrote  to  him  with 
that  open  spontaneity  which  is  such  a  charm  in  youth,  "  I 
shall  feel  as  if  I  had  all  my  Franche  Comté  with  me  when 
you  are  here."  Pasteur's  father  feared  a  crisis  like  that  of 
1838,  and,  after  hesitating,  refused  his  consent  to  an  imme- 
diate departure.    "  Next  year,"  he  said. 

In  October,  1841,  though  still  combining  the  functions  of 
master  and  student,  Pasteur  resumed  his  attendance  of  the 
classes  for  special  mathematics.  But  he  was  constantly 
thinking  of  Paris,  "Paris,  where  study  is  deeper."  One 
of  Chappuis'  comrades,  Bertin,  whom  Pasteur  had  met 
during  the  holidays,  had  just  entered  the  Ecole  Normale  at 
the  head  of  the  list  after  attending  in  Paris  a  class  of 
special  mathematics. 

"  If  I  do  not  pass  this  year,"  Pasteur  wrote  to  his  father 
on  November  7,  "  I  think  I  should  do  well  to  go  to  Paris  for 
a  year.  But  there  is  time  to  think  of  that  and  of  the  means 
of  doing  so  without  spending  too  much,  if  the  occasion 
should  arise.  I  see  now  what  great  advantage  there  is  in 
giving  two  years  to  mathematics  ;  everything  becomes 
clearer  and  easier.  Of  all  our  class  students  who  tried 
this  year  for  the  Ecole  Polytechnique  and  the  Ecole  Nor- 
male, not  a  single  one  has  passed,  not  even  the  best  of 
them,  a  student  who  had  already  done  one  year's  mathe- 
matics at  Lyons.  The  master  we  have  now  is  very  good. 
I  feel  sure  I  shall  do  a  great  deal  this  year." 

He  was  twice  second  in  his  class  ;  once  he  was  first  in 

25 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

physics.  "That  gives  me  hope  for  later  on,"  he  said.  He 
wrote  about  another  mathematical  competition,  "  If  I  get  a 
good  place  it  will  be  well  deserved,  for  this  work  has  given 
me  a  pretty  bad  headache;  I  always  do  get  one,  though, 
whenever  we  have  a  competition."  Then,  fearful  of  alarm- 
ing his  parents,  he  hastily  adds,  "But  those  headaches 
never  last  long,  and  it  is  only  an  hour  and  a  half  since  we 
left  off." 

Anxious  to  stifle  by  hard  work  his  growing  regrets  at  not 
having  followed  Chappuis  to  Paris,  Pasteur  imagined  that 
he  might  prepare  himself  for  the  Ecole  Polytechnique  as 
well  as  for  the  Ecole  Normale.  One  of  his  masters,  M. 
Bouché,  had  led  him  to  hope  that  he  might  be  successful. 
"  I  shall  try  this  year  for  both  schools,"  Pasteur  wrote  to 
his  friend  (January  22,  1842).  "  I  do  not  know  whether  I 
am  right  in  deciding  to  do  so.  One  thing  tells  me  that  I 
am  wrong  :  it  is  the  idea  that  we  might  thus  be  parted  ; 
and  when  I  think  of  that,  I  firmly  believe  that  I  cannot 
possibly  be  admitted  this  year  into  the  Ecole  Polytechnique. 
I  feel  quite  superstitious  about  it.  I  have  but  one  pleasure, 
your  letters  and  those  from  my  family.  Oh  !  do  write  often, 
very  long  letters!  " 

Chappuis,  concerned  at  this  sudden  resolve,  answered  in 
terms  that  did  credit  to  his  heart  and  youthful  wisdom. 
"Consult  your  tastes,  think  of  the  present,  of  the  future. 
You  must  think  of  yourself;  it  is  your  own  fate  that  you 
have  to  direct.  There  is  more  glitter  on  the  one  side  ;  on 
the  other  the  gentle  quiet  life  of  a  professor,  a  trifle  monoto- 
nous perhaps,  but  full  of  charm  for  him  who  knows  how  to 
enjoy  it.  You  too  appreciated  it  formerly,  and  I  learned  to 
do  so  when  we  thought  we  should  both  go  the  same  way. 
Anyhow,  go  where  you  think  you  will  be  happy,  and  think 
of  me  sometimes.     I  hope  your  father  will  not  blame  me 

26 


1822-1843 

I  believe  he  looks  upon  me  as  your  evil  genius.  These  last 
holidays  I  wanted  you  to  come  to  me,  then  I  advised  you  to 
go  to  Paris  ;  each  time  your  father  created  some  obstacle  ! 
But  do  what  he  wishes,  and  never  forget  that  it  is  perhaps 
because  he  loves  you  too  much  that  he  never  does  what  you 
ask  him." 

Pasteur  soon  thought  no  more  of  his  Polytechnic  fancy, 
and  gave  himself  up  altogether  to  his  preparation  for  the 
Ecole  Normale.  But  the  study  of  mathematics  seemed  to 
him  dry  and  exhausting.  He  wrote  in  April,  "One  ends 
by  having  nothing  but  figures,  formulas  and  geometrical 
forms  before  one's  eyes.  .  .  .  On  Thursday  I  went  out  and 
I  read  a  charming  story,  which,  much  to  my  astonishment, 
made  me  weep.  I  had  not  done  such  a  thing  for  years. 
Such  is  life." 

On  August  13,  1842,  he  went  up  for  his  examination 
{baccalauréat  es  sciences)  before  the  Dijon  Faculty.  He 
passed  less  brilliantly  even  than  he  had  done  for  the 
baccalauréat  es  lettres.  In  chemistry  he  was  only  put 
down  as  ^^médiocre^  On  August  26  he  was  declared 
admissible  to  the  examinations  for  the  Ecole  Normale.  But 
he  was  only  fifteenth  out  of  twenty-two  candidates.  He 
considered  this  too  low  a  place,  and  resolved  to  try  again 
the  following  year.  In  October,  1842,  he  started  for  Paris 
with  Chappuis.  On  the  eve  of  his  departure  Louis  drew  a 
last  pastel,  a  portrait  of  his  father.  It  is  a  powerful  face, 
with  observation  and  meditation  apparent  in  the  eyes, 
strength  and  caution  in  the  mouth  and  chin. 

Pasteur  arrived  at  the  Barbet  Boarding  School,  no  longer 
a  forlorn  lad,  but  a  tall  student  capable  of  teaching  and 
engaged  for  that  purpose.  He  only  paid  one-third  of  the 
pupil's  fees,  and  in  return  had  to  give  to  the  younger  pupils 
some  instruction  in  mathematics  every  morning  from  six  to 

27 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

seven.  His  room  was  not  in  the  school,  but  in  the  same 
Impasse  des  Feuillantines;  two  pupils  shared  it  with  him. 

"  Do  not  be  anxious  about  my  health  and  work,"  he  wrote 
to  his  friends  a  few  days  after  his  arrival.  "  I  need  hardly 
get  up  till  5.45  ;  you  see  it  is  not  so  very  early."  He  went 
on  outlining  the  programme  of  his  time.  "  I  shall  spend 
my  Thursdays  in  a  neighbouring  library  with  Chappuis, 
who  has  four  hours  to  himself  on  that  day.  On  Sundays 
we  shall  walk  and  work  a  little  together  ;  we  hope  to  do 
some  Philosophy  on  Sundays,  perhaps  too  on  Thursdays  ;  I 
shall  also  read  some  literary  works.  Surely  you  must  see 
that  I  am  not  homesick  this  time." 

Besides  attending  the  classes  of  the  Lycée  St.  Louis,  he 
also  went  to  the  Sorbonne  ^  to  hear  the  Professor,  who, 
after  taking  Gay-Lussac's  place  in  1832,  had  for  the  last 
ten  years  delighted  his  audience  by  an  eloquence  and  talent 
which  opened  boundless  horizons  before  every  mind. 

In  a  letter  dated  December  9,  1842,  Pasteur  wrote,  "  I 
attend  at  the  Sorbonne  the  lectures  of  M.  Dumas,  a  cele- 
brated chemist.  You  cannot  imagine  what  a  crowd  of 
people  come  to  these  lectures.  The  room  is  immense,  and 
always  quite  full.  We  have  to  be  there  half  an  hour  before 
the  time  to  get  a  good  place,  as  you  would  in  a  theatre  ; 

^  Sorbonne.  Name  given  to  the  Paris  Faculty  of  Theology  and  the 
buildings  in  which  it  was  established.  It  was  originally  intended  by  its 
founder,  Robert  de  Sorbon  (who  was  chaplain  to  St.  Louis,  King  of 
France,  1270)  as  a  special  establishment  to  facilitate  theological  studies 
for  poor  students.  This  college  became  one  of  the  most  celebrated  in  the 
world,  and  produced  so  many  clever  theologians  that  it  gave  its  name  to 
all  the  members  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology.  It  was  closed  during  the 
Revolution  in  1789,  and  its  buildings,  which  had  been  restored  by  Richelieu 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  were  given  to  the  Université  in  1808.  Since 
1 82 1  they  have  been  the  seat  of  the  Universitarian  Academy  of  Paris,  and 
used  for  the  lectures  of  the  Faculties  of  Theology,  of  Letters,  and  of 
Sciences.    [Trans]. 

28 


I822-I843 

there  is  also  a  great  deal  of  applause  ;  there  are  always 
six  or  seven  hundred  people."  Under  this  rostrum,  Pasteur 
became,  in  his  own  words,  a  "  disciple  "  full  of  the  enthusiasm 
inspired  by  Dumas. 

Happy  in  this  industrious  life,  he  wrote  in  response  to  an 
expression  of  his  parents'  provincial  uneasiness  as  to  the 
temptations  of  the  Latin  Quarter.  "  When  one  wishes  to 
keep  straight,  one  can  do  so  in  this  place  as  well  as  in  any 
other;  it  is  those  who  have  no  strength  of  will  that 
succumb." 

He  made  himself  so  useful  at  Barbet's  that  he  was  soon 
kept  free  of  all  expense.  But  the  expenses  of  his  Parisian 
life  are  set  out  in  a  small  list  made  about  that  time.  His 
father  wished  him  to  dine  at  the  Palais  Royal  on  Thursdays 
and  Sundays  with  Chappuis,  and  the  price  of  each  of  those 
dinners  came  to  a  little  less  than  two  francs.  He  had,  still 
with  the  inseparable  Chappuis,  gone  four  times  to  the 
theatre  and  once  to  the  opera.  He  had  also  hired  a  stove 
for  his  stone-floored  room  ;  for  eight  francs  he  had  bought 
some  firewood,  and  also  a  two-franc  cloth  for  his  table, 
which  he  said  had  holes  in  it,  and  was  not  convenient  to 
write  on. 

At  the  end  of  the  school  year,  1843,  he  took  at  the  Lycée 
St.  Louis  two  "  Accessits,"  ^  and  one  first  prize  in  physics, 
and  at  the  "Concours  GénéraV^  a  sixth  "Accessit"  in 
physics.  He  was  admitted  fourth  on  the  list  to  the  Ecole 
Normale.  He  then  wrote  from  Arbois  to  M.  Barbet,  telling 
him  that  on  his  half-holidays  he  would  give  some  lessons 
at  the  school  of  the  Impasse  des  Feuillantines  as  a  small 

^  Accessit.  A  distinction  accorded  in  French  schools  to  those  who 
have  come  nearest  to  obtaining  the  prize  in  any  given  subject.   [Trans.] 

*  Concours  General.  An  open  competition  held  every  year  at  the  Sor- 
bonne  between  the  élite  of  the  students  of  all  the  colleges  in  France, 
from  the  highest  classes  down  to  the  quatrième.     [Trans.] 

29 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

token  of  his  gratitude  for  past  kindness.  "My  dear 
Pasteur,"  answered  M.  Barbet,  "I  accept  with  pleasure 
the  offer  you  have  made  me  to  give  to  my  school  some  of 
the  leisure  that  you  will  have  during  your  stay  at  the 
Ecole  Normale.  It  will  indeed  be  a  means  of  frequent  and 
intimate  intercourse  between  us,  in  which  we  shall  both 
find  much  advantage." 

Pasteur  was  in  such  a  hurry  to  enter  the  Ecole  Normale 
that  he  arrived  in  Paris  some  days  before  the  other  students. 
He  solicited  permission  to  come  in  as  another  might  have 
begged  permission  to  come  out.  He  was  readily  allowed  to 
sleep  in  the  empty  dormitory.  His  first  visit  was  to  M. 
Barbet.  The  Thursday  half-holiday,  usually  from  one  to 
seven,  was  now  from  one  to  eight.  "  There  is  nothing  more 
simple,"  he  said,  "  than  to  come  regularly  at  six  o'clock  on 
Thursdays  and  give  the  schoolboys  a  physical  science  class." 

"  I  am  very  pleased,"  wrote  his  father,  "  that  you  are 
giving  lessons  at  M.  Barbet 's.  He  has  been  so  kind  to  us 
that  I  was  anxious  that  you  should  show  him  some  grati- 
tude ;  be  therefore  always  most  obliging  towards  him. 
You  should  do  so,  not  only  for  your  own  sake,  but  for 
others  ;  it  will  encourage  him  to  show  the  same  kindness 
to  other  studious  young  men,  whose  future  might  depend 
upon  it." 

Generosity,  self-sacrifice,  kindliness  even  to  unknown 
strangers,  cost  not  the  least  effort  to  the  father  and  son,  but 
seemed  to  them  the  most  natural  thing  possible.  Just  as 
their  little  house  at  Arbois  was  transformed  by  a  ray  of  the 
ideal,  the  broken  down  walls  of  the  old  Ecole  Normale — 
then  a  sort  of  annexe  of  the  Louis  Le  Grand  college,  and 
looking,  said  Jules  Simon,  like  an  old  hospital  or  barracks 
— reflected  within  them  the  ideas  and  sentiments  which 
inspire  useful  lives.    Joseph  Pasteur  wrote  (Nov.  i8,  1843)  : 

30 


I 822- I 843 

"  The  details  you  give  me  on  the  way  your  work  is  directed 
please  me  very  much  ;  everything  seems  organized  so  as  to 
produce  distinguished  scholars.  Honour  be  to  those  who 
founded  this  School."  Only  one  thing  troubled  him,  he  men- 
tioned it  in  every  letter.  "  You  know  how  we  worry  about 
your  health  ;  you  do  work  so  immoderately  !  Are  you  not 
injuring  your  eyesight  by  so  much  night  work?  Your 
ambition  ought  to  be  satisfied  now  that  you  have  reached 
your  present  position  !"  He  also  wrote  to  Chappuis  :  "Do 
tell  Louis  not  to  work  so  much  ;  it  is  not  good  to  strain 
one's  brain.  That  is  not  the  way  to  succeed  but  to  compro- 
mise one's  health."  And  with  some  little  irony  as  to  the 
cogitations  of  Chappuis  the  philosopher  :  "  Believe  me,  you 
are  but  poor  philosophers  if  you  do  not  know  that  one  can 
be  happy  even  as  a  poor  professor  in  Arbois  College." 

Another  letter,  December,  1843,  to  his  son  this  time  : 
"  Tell  Chappuis  that  I  have  bottled  some  1834  bought  on 
purpose  to  drink  the  health  of  the  Ecole  Normale  during 
the  next  holidays.  There  is  more  wit  in  those  100  litres 
than  in  all  the  books  on  philosophy  in  the  world  ;  but,  as  to 
mathematical  formulae,  there  are  none,  I  believe.  Mind 
you  tell  him  that  we  shall  drink  the  first  bottle  with  him. 
Remain  two  good  friends." 

Pasteur's  letters  during  this  first  period  at  the  Normale 
have  been  lost,  but  his  biography  continues  without  a  break, 
thanks  to  the  letters  of  his  father.  "  Tell  us  always  about 
your  studies,  about  your  doings  at  Barbet's.  Do  you  still 
attend  M.  Pouillet's  lectures,  or  do  you  find  that  one  science 
hampers  the  other  ?  I  should  think  not  ;  on  the  contrary, 
one  should  be  a  help  to  the  other."  This  observation  should 
be  interesting  to  a  student  of  heredity  ;  the  idea  casually 
mentioned  by  the  father  was  to  receive  a  vivid  demonstra- 
tion in  the  life-work  of  the  son. 

31 


CHAPTER  II 
1844-1849 

PASTEUR  often  spent  his  leisure  moments  in  the  library 
of  the  Ecole  Normale.  Those  who  knew  him  at  that 
time  remember  him  as  grave,  quiet,  almost  shy.  But  under 
these  reflective  characteristics  lay  the  latent  fire  of  enthu- 
siasm. The  lives  of  illustrious  men,  of  great  scientists,  of 
great  patriots  inspired  him  with  a  generous  ardour.  To 
this  ardour  he  added  a  great  eagerness  of  mind  ;  whether 
studying  a  book,  even  a  commonplace  one — for  he  was  so 
conscientious  that  he  did  not  even  know  what  it  was  to 
"skim"  through  a  book — or  coming  away  from  one  of 
J.  B.  Dumas'  lectures,  or  writing  his  student's  notes  in  his 
small  fine  handwriting,  he  was  always  thirsting  to  learn 
more,  to  devote  himself  to  great  researches.  There  seemed 
to  him  no  better  way  of  spending  a  holiday  than  to  be  shut 
up  all  Sunday  afternoon  at  the  Sorbonne  laboratory  or 
coaxing  a  private  lesson  from  the  celebrated  Barruel, 
Dumas'  curator. 

Chappuis — anxious  to  obey  the  injunctions  of  Pasteur's 
father,  who  in  every  letter  repeated  "  Do  not  let  him  work 
too  much!  "  desirous  also  of  enjoying  a  few  hours'  outing 
with  his  friend — used  to  wait  philosophically,  sitting  on  a 
laboratory  stool,  until  the  experiments  were  over.  Con- 
quered by  this  patient  attitude  and  reproachful   silence 

32 


I 844- I 849 

Pasteur  would  take  off  his  apron,  saying  half  angrily,  half 
gratefully,  "  Well,  let  us  go  for  a  walk."  And,  when  they 
were  out  in  the  street,  the  same  serious  subjects  of  conver- 
sation would  inevitably  crop  up — classes,  lectures,  read- 
ings, etc. 

One  day,  in  the  course  of  those  long  talks  in  the  gardens 
of  the  Luxembourg,  Pasteur  carried  Chappuis  with  him 
very  far  away  from  philosophy.  He  began  to  talk  of  tar- 
taric acid  and  of  paratartaric  acid.  The  former  had  been 
known  since  1770,  thanks  to  the  Swedish  chemist  Scheele, 
who  discovered  it  in  the  thick  crusty  formations  within 
wine  barrels  called  "tartar"  ;  but  the  latter  was  disconcert- 
ing to  chemists.  In  1820  an  Alsatian  manufacturer,  Kest- 
ner,  had  obtained  by  chance,  whilst  preparing  tartaric  acid 
in  his  factory  at  Thann,  a  very  singular  acid  which  he  was 
unable  to  reproduce  in  spite  of  various  attempts.  He  had 
kept  some  of  it  in  stock.  Gay-Lussac,  having  visited  the 
Thann  factory  in  1826,  studied  this  mysterious  acid;  he  pro- 
posed to  call  it  racemic  acid.  Berzélius  studied  it  in  his 
turn,  and  preferred  to  call  it  paratartaric.  Either  name 
may  be  adopted  ;  it  is  exactly  the  same  thing  :  men  of 
letters  or  in  society  are  equally  frightened  by  the  word 
paratartaric  or  racemic.  Chappuis  certainly  was  when 
Pasteur  repeated  to  him  word  for  word  a  paragraph  by  a 
Berlin  chemist  and  crystallographer  named  Mitscherlich. 
Pasteur  had  pondered  over  this  paragraph  until  he  knew 
it  by  heart  ;  often  indeed,  absorbed  in  reading  the  reports 
for  1844  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences,  in  the  dark  room 
which  was  then  the  library  of  the  Ecole  Normale,  he  had 
wondered  if  it  were  possible  to  get  over  a  difficulty  which 
seemed  insurmountable  to  scientists  such  as  Mitscherlich 
and  Biot.  This  paragraph  related  to  two  saline  combina- 
tions— tartrate  and  paratartrate  of  soda  or  ammonia — and 

VOL.  I.  33  D 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

may  be  epitomized  as  follows  :  in  these  two  substances  of 
similar  crystalline  form,  the  nature  and  number  of  the 
atoms,  their  arrangement  and  distances  are  the  same.  Yet 
dissolved  tartrate  rotates  the  plane  of  polarized  light  and 
paratartrate  remains  inactive. 

Pasteur  had  the  gift  of  making  scientific  problems  inter- 
esting in  a  few  words,  even  to  minds  least  inclined  to  that 
particular  line  of  thought.  He  rendered  his  listener's  at- 
tention very  easy  ;  no  question  surprised  him  and  he  never 
smiled  at  ignorance.  Though  Chappuis,  absorbed  in  the 
series  of  lectures  on  philosophy  given  at  that  time  by  Jules 
Simon,  was  deep  in  a  train  of  thought  very  far  away  from 
Mitscherlich's  perplexities,  he  gradually  became  interested 
in  this  optical  inactivity  of  paratartrate,  which  so  visibly 
affected  his  friend.  Pasteur  liked  to  look  back  into  the 
history  of  things,  giving  in  this  way  a  veritable  life  to  his 
explanations.  Thus,  à  propos  of  the  optical  phenomenon 
which  puzzled  Mitscherlich,  Pasteur  was  speaking  to  his 
friend  of  crystallized  carbonate  of  lime,  called  Iceland 
spar,  which  presents  a  double  refraction — that  is  to  say  :  if 
you  look  at  an  object  through  this  crystal,  you  perceive 
two  reproductions  of  that  object.  In  describing  this, 
Pasteur  was  not  giving  to  Chappuis  a  vague  notion  of 
some  piece  of  crystal  in  a  glass  case,  but  was  absolutely 
evoking  a  vision  of  the  beautiful  crystal,  perfectly  pure  and 
transparent,  brought  from  Iceland  in  1669  to  a  Danish 
physicist.  Pasteur  almost  seemed  to  experience  the 
surprise  and  emotion  of  this  scientist,  when,  observing  a 
ray  of  light  through  this  crystal,  he  saw  it  suddenly  dupli- 
cated. Pasteur  also  spoke  enthusiastically  of  an  officer  of 
Engineers  under  the  First  Empire,  Etienne  Louis  Malus. 
Malus  was  studying  double  refraction,  and  holding  in 
his  hands  a  piece  of  spar  crystal,  when,  from  his  room  in 

34 


I 844-1 849 

the  Rue  de  l'Enfer,  it  occurred  to  him  to  observe  through 
the  crystal  the  windows  of  the  Luxembourg  Palace,  then 
lighted  up  by  the  setting  sun.  It  was  sufficient  to  make 
the  crystal  rotate  slowly  round  the  visual  ray  (as  on  an 
axis)  to  perceive  the  periodic  variations  in  the  intensity  of 
the  light  reflected  by  the  windows.  No  one  had  yet 
suspected  that  light,  after  being  reflected  under  certain 
conditions,  would  acquire  properties  quite  different  from 
those  it  had  before  its  reflection.  Malus  gave  the  name  ot 
polarized  light  to  light  thus  modified  (by  reflection  in  this 
particular  case).  Scientists  admitted  in  those  days,  in  the 
theory  of  emission,  the  existence  of  luminous  molecules, 
and  they  imagined  that  these  molecules  "  suffered  the  same 
effects  simultaneously  when  they  had  been  reflected  on  glass 
at  a  certain  angle.  .  .  .  They  were  all  turned  in  the  same 
direction."  Pouillet,  speaking  of  this  discovery  of  Malus 
in  the  class  on  physics  that  Pasteur  attended,  explained 
that  the  consequent  persuasion  was  "  that  those  molecules 
had  rotatory  axes  and  poles,  around  which  their  move- 
ments could  be  accomplished  under  certain  influences." 

Pasteur  spoke  feverishly  of  his  regrets  that  Malus  should 
have  died  at  thirty-seven  in  the  midst  of  his  researches  ;  of 
Biot,  and  of  Arago,  who  became  illustrious  in  the  path  opened 
by  Malus.  He  explained  to  Chappuis  that,  by  means  of  a 
polarizing  apparatus,  it  could  be  seen  that  certain  quartz 
crystals  deflected  to  the  right  the  plane  of  polarized  light, 
whilst  others  caused  it  to  turn  to  the  left.  Chappuis  also 
learned  that  some  natural  organic  materia,  such  as  solutions 
of  sugar  or  of  tartaric  acid,  when  placed  in  such  an 
apparatus,  turned  to  the  right  the  plane  of  polarization, 
whilst  others,  like  essence  of  turpentine  or  quinine,  de- 
flected it  to  the  left  ;  whence  the  expression  "  rotatory 
polarization." 

35 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

These  would  seem  dry  researches,  belonging  altogether 
to  the  domain  of  science.  And  yet,  thanks  to  the  sacchari- 
meter,  which  is  a  polarizing  apparatus,  a  manufacturer  can 
ascertain  the  quantity  of  pure  sugar  contained  in  the  brown 
sugar  of  commerce,  and  a  physiologist  can  follow  the 
progress  of  diabetes. 

Chappuis,  who  knew  what  powers  of  investigation  his 
friend  could  bring  to  bear  on  the  problem  enunciated  by 
Mitscherlich,  thought  with  regret  that  the  prospect  of  such 
examinations  as  that  for  the  licence  and  for  the  agrégation 
did  not  allow  Pasteur  to  concentrate  all  his  forces  on 
such  a  special  scientific  point.  But  Pasteur  was  resolved  to 
come  back  definitely  to  this  subject  as  soon  as  he  should 
have  become  "  docteur  es  sciences.'' 

When  writing  to  his  father  he  did  not  dwell  upon  tartrate 
and  paratartrate  ;  but  his  ambition  was  palpable.  He  was 
ever  eager  to  do  double  work,  to  go  up  for  his  examination 
at  the  very  earliest.  "Before  being  a  captain,"  answered 
the  old  sergeant-major,  "you  must  become  a  lieutenant." 

These  letters  give  one  the  impression  of  living  amongst 
those  lives,  perpetually  reacting  upon  each  other.  The 
thoughts  of  the  whole  family  were  centred  upon  the  great 
School,  where  that  son,  that  brother,  was  working,  in  whom 
the  hopes  of  each  were  placed.  If  one  of  his  bulky  letters 
with  the  large  post  mark  w^as  too  long  in  coming,  his 
father  wrote  to  reproach  him  gently  :  "  Your  sisters  were 
counting  the  days.  Eighteen  days,  they  said  !  Louis  has 
never  kept  us  waiting  so  long!  Can  he  be  ill?  It  is  a 
great  joy  to  me,"  adds  the  father,  "  to  note  your  attachment 
to  each  other.    May  it  always  remain  so." 

The  mother  had  no  time  to  write  much;  she  was  bur- 
dened with  all  the  cares  of  the  household  and  with  keeping 
the  books  of  the  business.  But  she  watched  for  the  postman 

36 


I844-I849 

with  a  tender  anxiety  increased  by  her  vivid  imagination. 
Her  thoughts  were  ever  with  the  son  whom  she  loved,  not 
with  a  selfish  love,  but  for  himself,  sharing  his  happiness  in 
that  he  was  working  for  a  useful  career. 

So,  between  that  corner  in  the  Jura  and  the  Ecole  Nor- 
male, there  was  a  continual  exchange  of  thoughts;  the 
smallest  incidents  of  daily  life  were  related.  The  father, 
knowing  that  he  should  inform  the  son  of  the  fluctuations 
of  the  family  budget,  spoke  of  his  more  or  less  successful 
sales  of  leathers  at  the  Besançon  fair.  The  son  was  ever 
hunting  in  the  progress  of  industry  anything  that  could 
tend  to  lighten  the  father's  heavy  handicraft.  But  though 
the  father  declared  himself  ready  to  examine  Vauquelin's 
new  tanning  process,  which  obviated  the  necessity  of  keep- 
ing the  skins  so  long  in  the  pits,  he  asked  himself  with 
scrupulous  anxiety  whether  leathers  prepared  in  that  way 
would  last  as  long  as  the  others.  Could  he  safely  guarantee 
them  to  the  shoemakers,  who  were  unanimous  in  praising 
the  goods  of  the  little  tannery-yard,  but  alas  equally  unani- 
mous in  forgetting  to  reward  the  disinterested  tanner  by 
prompt  payment  ?  He  supplied  his  family  with  the  neces- 
saries of  life  :  what  more  did  he  want  ?  When  he  had  news 
of  his  Normalien  he  was  thoroughly  happy.  He  associated 
himself  with  his  son's  doings,  sharing  his  enthusiasm  over 
Dumas'  lectures,  and  taking  an  interest  in  Pouillet's 
classes:  Pouillet  was  a  Franc-Comtois,  and  had  been  a 
student  at  the  Ecole  Normale;  he  was  now  Professor  of 
Physics  at  the  Sorbonne  and  a  member  of  the  Institut} 
When  Balard,  a  lecturer  at  the  Ecole,  was  nominated  to  the 

^  Institut  de  France.  Name  given  collectively  to  the  five  following 
societies — 

I.  Académie  Française.,  founded  by  Richelieu  in  1635  i"  order  to  polish 
and  maintain  the  purityof  the  French  language.  It  is  composed  of  forty  Life 

37 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Académie  des  Sciences,  Louis  told  his  father  of  it  with  the 
delight  of  an  admiring  pupil. 

Like  J.  B.  Dumas,  Balard  had  been  an  apothecary's  pupil. 
When  he  spoke  of  their  humble  beginnings,  Dumas  was 
wont  to  say  rather  pompously — "  Balard  and  I  were  initiated 
into  our  scientific  life  under  the  same  conditions."  When, 
at  the  age  of  forty-two,  he  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Institute,  Balard  could  not  contain  his  joy  ;  he  was  quite 
a  Southerner  in  his  language  and  gestures,  and  the  adjective 
exubérant  might  have  been  invented  for  him.  But  this  same 
Southerner,  ever  on  the  move  as  he  was,  belonged  to  a 
special  race;  he  always  kept  his  word.  "I  was  glad  to 
note  your  pleasure  at  this  nomination,"  wrote  Joseph 
Pasteur  to  his  son  ;  "it  proves  that  you  are  grateful  to  your 
masters."  About  that  same  time  the  headmaster  of  Arbois 
College,  M.  Romanet,  used  to  read  out  to  the  older  boys  the 
letters,  always  full  of  gratitude,  which  he  received  from 
Louis  Pasteur.  These  letters  reflected  life  in  Paris,  such 
as  Pasteur  understood  it — a  life  of  hard  work  and  exalted 
ambition.  M.  Romanet,  in  one  of  his  replies,  asked  him  to 
become  librarian  in  partibus  for  the  college  and  to  choose 
and  procure  books  on  science  and  literature.  The  head- 
master also  begged  of  the  young  man  some  lectures  for  the 

members,  and  publishes  from  time  to  time  a  dictionary  which  is  looked 
upon  as  a  standard  test  of  correct  French. 

2.  Académie  des  Inscnptions  et  Belles  Lettres^  founded  by  Colbert  in 
1663. 

3.  Académie  des  Sciences,  also  founded  by  Colbert  in  1666.  It  has  pub- 
lished most  valuable  reports  ever  since  1699. 

4.  Académie  des  Beaux-Arts,  which  includes  the  Academies  of  Painting, 
of  Sculpture,  of  Music,  and  of  Architecture. 

5.  Académie  des  Sciences  Morales  et  Politiques. 

It  was  in  1795  that  these  ancient  academies,  which  had  been  suppressed 
two  years  before  by  the  Revolution,  were  reorganized  and  combined 
together  to  form  the  Institut  de  France.    [Trans.] 

38 


I844-I849 

rhétorique  class  during  the  holid£iys.  "  It  would  seem  to 
the  boys  like  an  echo  of  the  Sorbonne  lectures  !  And  you 
would  speak  to  us  of  our  great  scientific  men,"  added 
M.  Romanet,  "amongst  whom  we  shall  one  day  number 
him  who  once  was  one  of  our  best  pupils  and  will  ever 
remain  one  of  our  best  friends." 

A  corresponding  member  of  Arbois  College,  and  retained 
as  vacation  lecturer,  Pasteur  now  undertook  a  yet  more 
special  task.  He  had  often  heard  his  father  deplore 
his  own  lack  of  instruction,  and  knew  well  the  elder  man's 
desire  for  knowledge.  By  a  touching  exchange  of  parts, 
the  child  to  whom  his  father  had  taught  his  alphabet  now 
became  his  father's  teacher  ;  but  with  what  respect  and 
what  delicacy  did  this  filial  master  express  himself  !  "  It  is 
in  order  that  you  may  be  able  to  help  Josephine  that  I  am 
sending  you  this  work  to  do."  He  took  most  seriously  his 
task  of  tutor  by  correspondence  ;  the  papers  he  sent  were 
not  always  easy.  His  father  wrote  (Jan.  2,  1845) — "  I  have 
spent  two  days  over  a  problem  which  I  afterwards  found 
quite  easy  ;  it  is  no  trifle  to  learn  a  thing  and  teach  it 
directly  afterwards."  And  a  month  later  :  "  Josephine  does 
not  care  to  rack  her  brains,  she  says  ;  however  I  promise 
you  that  you  will  be  pleased  with  her  progress  by  the  next 
holidays." 

The  father  would  often  sit  up  late  at  night  over  rules  of 
grammar  and  mathematical  problems,  preparing  answers 
to  send  to  his  boy  in  Paris. 

Some  Arboisians,  quite  forgotten  now,  imagined  that  they 
would  add  lustre  to  the  local  history.  General  Baron 
Delort,  a  peer  of  France,^  aide  de  camp  to  Louis  Philippe, 

^  Peers  of  France.  A  supreme  Council  formed  originally  of  the  First 
Vassals  of  the  Crown  ;  became  in  1420  one  of  the  Courts  of  Parliament. 
In   1789  the  Peerage  was  suppressed,  but  reinstated  in  1814  by  the 

39 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Grand  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honour  and  the  first  personage 
in  Arbois— where  he  beguiled  his  old  age  by  translating 
Horace — used  to  go  across  the  Cuisance  bridge  without  so 
much  as  glancing  at  the  tannery  where  the  Pasteur  family 
lived.  Whilst  the  general  in  his  thoughts  bequeathed  to 
the  town  of  Arbois  his  books,  his  papers,  his  decorations, 
even  his  uniform,  he  was  far  from  foreseeing  that  the  little 
dwelling  by  the  bridge  would  one  day  become  the  cynosure 
of  all  eyes. 

Months  went  by  and  happy  items  of  news  succeeded 
one  another.  The  Normalien  was  chiefly  interested  in 
the  transformations  of  matter,  and  was  practising  in  order 
to  become  capable  of  assisting  in  experiments  ;  difficulties 
only  stimulated  him.  At  the  chemistry  class  that  he  at- 
tended, the  process  of  obtaining  phosphorus  was  merely 
explained,  on  account  of  the  length  of  time  necessary  to 
obtain  this  elementary  substance  ;  Pasteur,  with  his  patience 
and  desire  for  proven  knowledge,  was  not  satisfied.  He 
therefore  bought  some  bones,  burnt  them,  reduced  them  to 
a  very  fine  ash,  treated  this  ash  with  sulphuric  acid,  and 
carefully  brought  the  process  to  its  close.  What  a  triumph 
it  seemed  to  him  when  he  had  in  his  possession  sixty 
grammes  of  phosphorus,  extracted  from  bones,  which  he 
could  put  into  a  phial  labelled  "  phosphorus."  This  was 
his  first  scientific  joy. 

Whilst  his  comrades  ironically  (but  with  some  discern- 
ment) called  him  a  "  laboratory  pillar,"  some  of  them,  more 
intent  upon   their  examinations,   were  getting  ahead  of 


Restoration,  when  it  again  formed  part  of  the  Legislative  Corps  ;  there 
were  then  hereditary  peers  and  life-peers.  In  183 1  the  hereditary  peerage 
was  abolished  and  life-peers  were  nominated  by  the  King  under  certain 
restrictions.  This  House  of  Peers  was  suppressed  in  1848,  and  in  1852 
the  Senate  was  instituted  in  its  stead.    [Trans.] 

40 


I 844- I §49 

him. — M.  Darboux,  the  present  "doyen"  of  the  Faculty^ 
of  Science,  finds  in  the  Sorbonne  registers  that  Pasteur 
was  placed  7th  at  the  licence  examination  ;  two  other 
students  having  obtained  equal  marks  with  him,  the  jury 
(Balard,  Dumas  and  Delafosse),  mentioned  his  name  after 
theirs. 

Those  who  care  for  archives  would  find  in  the  Journal 
Gétîéral  de  V Instruction  Publique  of  September  17,  1846, 
a  report  of  the  agrégation'^  competition  (physical  science). 
Out  of  fourteen  candidates  only  four  passed  and  Pasteur 
was  the  third.  His  lessons  on  physics  and  chemistry 
caused  the  jury  to  say,  "He  will  make  an  excellent  pro- 
fessor." 

Many  Normaliens  of  that  time  fancied  themselves 
called  to  a  destiny  infinitely  superior  to  his.  Some  of  them,  in 
later  times,  used  to  complacently  allude  to  this  momentary 
superiority  when  speaking  to  their  pupils.  Of  all  Pasteur's 
acquaintances  Chappuis  was  the  only  one  who  divined  the 
future.  "  You  will  see  'what  Pasteur  will  be,"  he  used  to 
say,  with  an  assurance  generally  attributed  to  friendly 
partiality.  Chappuis — Pasteur's  confidant — -was  well  aware 
of  his  friend's  powers  of  concentration. 

Balard  also  realized  this;  he  had  the  happy  idea  of  taking 
the  young  agrégé  into  his  laboratory,  and  intervened  ve- 
hemently when  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  desired 
— a  few  months  later — that  Pasteur  should  teach  physics 

^  Facultés^  Government  establishments  for  superior  studies  ;  there  are 
in  France  Faculties  of  Theology,  of  Law,  of  Medicine,  of  Sciences  and 
of  Letters,  distributed  among  the  larger  provincial  towns  as  well  as  in 
Paris.  The  administrator  of  a  faculty  is  styled  doyen  (dean)  and  is 
chosen  among  the  professors.     [Trans.] 

^  Agrégation.  An  annual  competition  for  recruiting  professors  for 
faculties  and  secondary  schools  or  lycées.  A  candidate  for  the  lycées 
agrégation  must  have  passed  his  licence  examination,  and  a  candidate 
for  the  ^\x^çx\Qx  agrégation  vs\\!&\.  be  in  possession  of  his  doctorate.  [Trans.] 

41 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

in  the  Tournon  Lycée.  It  would  be  rank  folly,  Balard  de- 
clared, to  send  500  kilometers  away  from  Paris  a  youth 
who  only  asked  for  the  modest  title  of  curator,  and  had 
no  ambition  but  to  work  from  morning  till  night,  preparing 
for  his  doctor's  degree.  There  would  be  time  to  send  him 
away  later  on.  It  was  impossible  to  resist  this  torrent  of 
words  founded  on  solid  sense.    Balard  prevailed. 

Pasteur  was  profoundly  grateful  to  him  for  preserving 
him  from  exile  to  the  little  town  in  Ardèche  ;  and,  as  he 
added  to  his  Franc-Comtois  patience  and  reflective  mind 
a  childlike  heart  and  deep  enthusiasm,  he  was  delighted 
to  remain  with  a  master  like  Balard,  who  had  become 
celebrated,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  as  the  discoverer 
of  bromin. 

At  the  end  of  1846,  a  newcomer  entered  Balard's  laboratory, 
a  strange,  delicate-looking  man,  whose  ardent  eyes  were  at 
the  same  time  proud  and  yet  anxious.  This  man,  a  scientist 
and  a  poet,  was  a  professor  of  the  Bordeaux  Faculty,  named 
Auguste  Laurent.  Perhaps  he  had  had  some  friction  with 
his  Bordeaux  chiefs,  possibly  he  merely  wished  for  a  change  ; 
at  all  events,  he  now  desired  to  live  in  Paris.  Laurent  was 
already  known  in  the  scientific  world,  and  had  recently 
been  made  a  correspondent  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences. 
He  had  foreseen  and  confirmed  the  theory  of  substitutions, 
formulated  by  Dumas  as  early  as  1834  before  the  Académie. 
Dumas  had  expressed  himself  thus:  "Chlorine  possesses 
the  singular  power  of  seizing  upon  the  hydrogen  in  certain 
substances,  and  of  taking  its  place  atom  by  atom." 

This  theory  of  substitutions  was — according  to  a  simple 
and  vivid  comparison  of  Pasteur's — a  way  of  looking  upon 
chemical  bodies  as  upon  "  molecular  edifices,  in  which  one 
element  could  be  replaced  by  another  without  disturbing 
the  structure  of  the  edifice  ;  as  if  one  were  to  replace,  one 

42 


1844-1849 

by  one,  every  stone  of  a  monument  by  a  new  stone." 
Original  researches,  new  and  bold  ideas,  appealed  to  Pasteur. 
But  his  cautious  mind  prevented  his  boldness  from  leading 
him  into  errors,  surprises  or  hasty  conclusions.  "That  is 
possible,"  he  would  say,  "  but  we  must  look  more  deeply 
into  the  subject." 

When  asked  by  Laurent  to  assist  him  with  some  experi- 
ments upon  certain  theories,  Pasteur  was  delighted  at  this 
suggested  collaboration,  and  wrote  to  his  friend  Chappuis  : 
"  Even  if  the  work  should  lead  to  no  results  worth  pub- 
lishing, it  will  be  most  useful  to  me  to  do  practical  work 
for  several  months  with  such  an  experienced  chemist." 

It  was  partly  due  to  Laurent,  that  Pasteur  entered 
more  deeply  into  the  train  of  thought  which  was  to  lead 
him  to  grapple  with  Mitscherlich's  problem.  "One  day" 
(this  is  a  manuscript  note  of  Pasteur's)  "  one  day  it  hap- 
pened that  M.  Laurent — studying,  if  I  mistake  not,  some 
tungstate  of  soda,  perfectly  crystallized  and  prepared  from 
the  directions  of  another  chemist,  whose  results  he  was 
verifying — showed  me  through  the  microscope  that  this 
salt,  apparently  very  pure,  was  evidently  a  mixture  of  three 
distinct  kinds  of  crystals,  easily  recognizable  with  a  little 
experience  of  crystalline  forms.  The  lessons  of  our  modest 
and  excellent  professor  of  mineralogy,  M.  Delafosse,  had 
long  since  made  me  love  crystallography  ;  so,  in  order  to 
acquire  the  habit  of  using  the  goniometer,  I  began  to  care- 
fully study  the  formations  of  a  very  fine  series  of  combina- 
tions, all  very  easily  crystallized,  tartaric  acid  and  the 
tartrates."  He  appreciated  any  favourable  influence  on  his 
work  ;  we  find  in  the  same  note  :  "  Another  motive  urged 
me  to  prefer  the  study  of  those  particular  forms.  M.  de  la 
Provostaye  had  just  published  an  almost  complete  work 
concerning  them  ;  this  allowed  me  to  compare  as  I  went 

43 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

along  my  own  observations  with  those,  always  so  precise, 
of  that  clever  scientist.'' 

Pasteur  and  Laurent's  work  in  common  was  interrupted. 
Laurent  was  appointed  as  Dumas'  assistant  at  the  Sorbonne. 
Pasteur  did  not  dwell  upon  liis  own  disappointment,  but 
rejoiced  to  see  honour  bestowed  upon  a  man  whom  he 
thought  worthy  of  the  first  rank.  Some  judges  have 
thought  that  Laurent,  in  his  introductory  lesson,  was  too 
eager  to  expound  his  own  ideas  ;  but  is  not  every  believer 
an  apostle?  When  a  mind  is  full  of  ideas,  it  naturally 
overflows.  It  is  probable  that  Pasteur  in  Laurent's  place 
would  have  kept  his  part  as  an  assistant  more  in  the  back- 
ground. He  did  not  give  vent  to  the  slightest  criticism, 
but  wrote  to  Chappuis.  "Laurent's  lectures  are  as  bold 
as  his  writings,  and  his  lessons  are  making  a  great  sen- 
sation amongst  chemists."  Whether  one  of  criticism  or  of 
approbation,  this  sensation  was  a  living  element  of  success. 
In  order  to  answer  some  insinuations  concerning  Laurent's 
ambition  and  constant  thirst  for  change,  Pasteur  proclaimed 
in  his  thesis  on  chemistry  how  much  he  had  been  "  enlight- 
ened by  the  kindly  advice  oi  a  man  so  distinguished,  both 
by  his  talent  and  by  his  character." 

This  essay  was  entitled  "  Researches  into  the  saturation 
capacity  of  arsenious  acid.  A  study  of  the  arsenites  oj 
potash^  soda  and  am)}ioma.''  This,  to  Pasteur's  mind,  was 
but  schoolboy  work.  He  had  not  yet,  he  said,  enough 
practice  and  experience  in  laboratory  work.  "In  physics," 
he  wrote  to  Chappuis,  "  I  shall  only  present  a  programme 
of  some  researches  that  I  mean  to  undertake  next  year, 
and  that  I  merely  indicate  in  my  essay." 

This  essay  on  physics  was  a  '^  Study  of  phenomena  relative 
to  the  rotatory  polarisation  of  liquids''  In  it  he  rendered 
full  homage  to  Biot,  pointing  out  the  importance  of  a  branch 

44 


1844-1849 

of  science  too  much  neglected  by  chemists  ;  he  added  that 
it  was  most  useful,  in  order  to  throw  light  upon  certain 
difficult  chemical  problems,  to  obtain  the  assistance  of  crys- 
tallography and  physics.  "  Such  assistance  is  especially 
needed  in  the  present  state  of  science." 

These  two  essays,  dedicated  to  his  father  and  mother, 
were  read  on  August  23,  1847,  He  only  obtained  one 
white  ball  and  two  red  ones  for  each.  "  "We  cannot  judge 
of  your  essays,"  wrote  his  father,  in  the  name  of  the  whole 
family,  "but  our  satisfaction  is  no  less  great.  As  to  a 
doctor's  degree,  I  was  far  from  hoping  as  much  ;  all  my 
ambition  was  satisfied  with  the  agrégation''  Such  was 
not  the  case  with  his  son.  " Onwards"  was  his  motto,  not 
from  a  desire  for  a  diploma,  but  from  an  insatiable  thirst 
for  knowledge. 

After  spending  a  few  days  with  his  family  and  friends, 
he  wanted  to  go  to  Germany  with  Chappuis  to  study 
German  from  morning  till  night.  The  prospect  of  such 
industrious  holidays  enchanted  him.  But  he  had  forgotten 
a  student's  debt.  "  I  cannot  carry  out  my  project,"  he 
sadly  wrote,  on  September  3,  1847;  ''I  am  more  than  ruined 
by  the  cost  of  printing  my  thesis." 

On  his  return  to  Paris  he  shut  himself  up  in  the  labora- 
tory. "I  am  extremely  happy.  I  shall  soon  publish  a 
paper  on  crj^stallography."  His  father  writes  (December  25, 
1847)  :  "We  received  your  letter  yesterday;  it  is  absolutely 
satisfactory,  but  it  could  not  be  otherwise  coming  from  you  ; 
you  have  long,  indeed  ever,  been  all  satisfaction  to  me." 
And  in  response  to  his  son's  intentions  of  accomplishing 
various  tasks,  fully  understanding  that  nothing  will  stop 
him  :  "  You  are  doing  right  to  make  for  your  goal  ;  it  was 
only  out  of  excessive  affection  that  I  have  often  written 
in  another  sense.    I  only  feared  that  you  might  succumb 

45 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

to  your  work  ;  so  many  noble  youths  have  sacrificed  their 
health  to  the  love  of  science.  Knowing  you  as  I  do,  this 
was  mj'  onl}'  anxiety." 

After  being  reproved  for  excessive  work,  Louis  was 
reprimanded  for  too  much  affection  (January  i,  1848).  "The 
presents  you  sent  have  just  arrived;  I  shall  leave  it  to 
your  sisters  to  write  their  thanks.  For  my  part,  I  should 
prefer  a  thousand  times  that  this  money  should  still  be  in 
your  purse,  and  thence  to  a  good  restaurant,  spent  in  some 
good  meals  that  5-ou  might  have  enjoyed  with  your  friends. 
There  are  not  many  parents,  mj  dearest  bo}'^,  who  have  to 
write  such  things  to  their  son  ;  my  satisfaction  in  you  is 
indeed  deeper  than  I  can  express."  At  the  end  of  this 
same  letter,  the  mother  adds  in  her  turn  :  "  My  darling 
boy,  I  wish  you  a  happy  new  year.  Take  great  care  of 
your  health.  .  .  .  Think  what  a  worry  it  is  to  me  that 
I  cannot  be  with  jom  to  look  after  you.  Sometimes  I  try 
to  console  myself  for  your  absence  by  thinking  how  fortu- 
nate I  am  in  having  a  child  able  to  raise  himself  to  such 
a  position  as  yours  is — such  a  happy  position,  as  it  seems 
to  be  from  your  last  letter  but  one."  And  in  a  strange 
sentence,  where  it  would  seem  that  a  presentiment  of  her 
approaching  death  made  worldly  things  appear  at  their 
true  value  :  "  Whatever  happens  to  you,  do  not  grieve  ; 
nothing  in  life  is  more  than  a  chimera.  Farewell,  my 
son." 

On  March  20,  1848,  Pasteur  read  to  the  Académie  des 
Sciences  a  portion  of  his  treatise  on  "  Researches  on  Di- 
morphism.'' There  are  some  substances  which  crystallize 
in  two  different  ways.  Sulphur,  for  instance,  gives  quite 
dissimilar  crj^stals  according  to  whether  it  is  melted  in  a 
crucible  or  dissolved  in  sulphide  of  carbon.  Those  sub- 
stances are  called  dimorphous.     Pasteur,  kindly  aided  by 

46 


1844-1849 

the  learned  M.  Delafosse  (with  his  usual  gratefulness  he 
mentions  this  in  the  very  first  pages)  had  made  out  a  list 
— as  complete  as  possible — of  all  dimorphous  substances. 
When  M.  Romanet,  of  Arbois  College,  received  this  paper 
he  was  quite  overwhelmed.  "  It  is  much  too  stifif  for  you," 
he  said  with  an  infectious  modesty  to  Ver  eel,  Charrière, 
and  Coulon,  Pasteur's  former  comrades.  Perhaps  the  head 
master  desired  to  palliate  his  own  incompetence  in  the  eyes 
of  coming  generations,  for  on  the  title  page  of  the  copy  of 
Pasteur's  booklet  still  to  be  found  in  the  Arbois  library,  he 
wrote  this  remark,  which  he  signed  with  his  initial  R.  : — 
"  Dirnorphisme  ;  this  word  is  not  even  to  be  found  in  the 
Dictionnaire  de  V  Académie  "  !  !  The  approbation  of  several 
members  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences  compensated  for  the 
somewhat  summary  judgement  of  M.  Romanet,  whose  good 
wishes  continued  to  follow  the  rapid  course  of  his  old  pupil. 
After  this  very  special  study,  dated  at  the  beginning  of 
1848,  one  might  imagine  the  graduate-curator  closing  his 
ears  to  all  outside  rumours  and  little  concerned  with  political 
agitation,  but  that  would  be  doing  him  an  injustice.  Those 
who  witnessed  the  Revolution  of  1848  remember  how  during 
the  early  days  France  was  exalted  with  the  purest  patriot- 
ism. Pasteur  had  visions  of  a  generous  and  fraternal 
Republic  ;  the  words  drapeau  and  patrie  moved  him  to  the 
bottom  of  his  soul.  Lamartine^  as  a  politician  inspired 
him  with  an  enthusiastic  confidence;  he  delighted  in  the 
sight  of  a  poet  leader  of  men.    Many  others  shared  the 

^  This  celebrated  poet  took  a  large  share  in  the  Revolution  of  1848, 
when  his  popularity  became  enormous.  His  political  talents,  however, 
apart  from  his  wonderful  eloquence,  were  less  than  mediocre,  and  he 
retired  into  private  life  within  three  years. 

His  "Meditations,"  "Jocelyn,"  "Recueillements,"  etc.,  etc.,  are  beauti- 
ful examples  of  lyrical  poetry,  and  may  be  considered  as  forming  part  of 
the  literature  of  the  world.    [Trans.] 

47 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

same  illusions.  France,  as  Louis  Veuillot  has  it,  made 
the  mistake  of  choosing  her  band-master  as  colonel  of  the 
regiment.  Enrolled  with  his  fellow  students,  Pasteur  wrote 
thus  to  his  parents  :  "I  am  writing  from  the  Orleans  Rail- 
way, where  as  a  garde  national  ^  I  am  stationed.  I  am 
glad  that  I  was  in  Paris  during  the  February  days  ^  and 
that  I  am  here  still  ;  I  should  be  sorry  to  leave  Paris  just 
now.  It  is  a  great  and  a  sublime  doctrine  which  is  now 
being  unfolded  before  our  eyes  .  .  .  and  if  it  were  necessary 
I  should  heartily  fight  for  the  holy  cause  of  the  Republic." 
"  What  a  transformation  of  our  whole  being  !  "  has  written 
one  who  was  then  a  candidate  to  the  Ecole  Normale,  already 
noted  by  his  masters  for  his  good  sense,  Francisque  Sarcey. 
"  How  those  magical  words  of  liberty  and  fraternity,  this 
renewal  of  the  Republic,  born  in  the  sunshine  of  our 
twentieth  year,  filled  our  hearts  with  unknown  and  absolutely 
delicious  sensations  !  With  what  a  gallant  joy  we  embraced 
the  sweet  and  superb  image  of  a  people  of  free  men  and 
brethren  !     The  whole  nation  was  moved  as  we  were  ;  like 

*  Garde  Nationale.  A  city  militia,  intended  to  preserve  order  and  to 
maintain  municipal  liberties  ;  it  was  improvised  in  1789,  and  its  first 
Colonel  was  General  Lafayette,  of  American  Independence  fame.  Its 
cockade  united  the  King's  white  to  the  Paris  colours,  blue  and  red,  and 
thus  was  inaugurated  the  celebrated  Tricolour. 

The  National  Guard  was  preserved  by  the  Restoration,  but  Charles  X 
disbanded  it  as  being  dangerously  Liberal  in  its  tendencies.  It  re-formed 
itself  of  its  own  accord  in  1830,  and  helped  to  overthrow  the  elder  branch 
of  Bourbon.  It  proved  a  source  of  disorder  in  1848  and  was  re-organised 
under  the  second  Empire,  but,  having  played  an  active  and  disastrous 
part  in  the  Commune  (1871),  it  was  disarmed  and  finally  suppressed. 
[Trans.] 

^  February  days.  The  Republicans  had  organized  a  banquet  in  Paris 
for  February  22,  1848.  The  Government  prohibited  it,  with  the  result 
that  an  insurrection  took  place.  Barricades  were  erected  and  some 
fighting  ensued  ;  on  the  24th,  the  insurgents  were  masters  of  the  situation. 
Louis  Philippe  abdicated  (vainly)  in  favour  of  his  grandson,  the  Comte 
de  Paris,  and  fled  to  England.    [Trans.] 

48 


I844-Ï849 

us,  it  had  drunk  of  the  intoxicating  cup.  The  honey  of 
eloquence  flowed  unceasingly  from  the  lips  of  a  great 
poet,  and  France  believed,  in  childlike  faith,  that  his  word 
was  efficacious  to  destroy  abuses,  cure  evils  and  soothe 
sorrows." 

One  day  when  Pasteur  was  crossing  the  Place  du  Panthéon, 
he  saw  a  gathering  crowd  around  a  wooden  erection, 
decorated  with  the  words:  Autel  de  la  Patrie.  A  neigh- 
bour told  him  that  pecuniary  offerings  might  be  laid 
upon  this  altar.  Pasteur  goes  back  to  the  Ecole  Normale, 
empties  a  drawer  of  all  his  savings,  and  returns  to  deposit 
it  in  thankful  hands. 

"  You  say,"  wrote  his  father  on  April  28,  1848,  "  that 
you  have  offered  to  France  all  your  savings,  amounting  to 
150  francs.  You  have  probably  kept  a  receipt  of  the  office 
where  this  payment  was  made,  with  mention  of  the  date 
and  place?"  And  considering  that  this  action  should  be 
made  known,  he  advises  him  to  publish  it  in  the  journal  Le 
National  or  La  Réforme  in  the  following  terms,  "  Gift  to 
the  Patrie  :  150  francs,  by  the  son  of  an  old  soldier  of  the 
Empire,  Louis  Pasteur  of  the  Ecole  Normale."  He  wrote 
in  the  same  letter,  "  You  should  raise  a  subscription  in  your 
school  in  favour  of  the  poor  Polish  exiles  who  have  done  so 
much  for  us  ;  it  would  be  a  good  deed." 

After  those  days  of  national  exaltation,  Pasteur  returned 
to  his  crystals.  He  studied  tartrates  under  the  influence 
of  certain  ideas  that  he  himself  liked  to  expound.  Objects 
considered  merely  from  the  point  of  view  of  form,  may  be 
divided  into  two  great  categories.  First,  those  objects 
which,  placed  before  a  mirror,  give  an  image  which  can  be 
superposed  to  them:  these  have  a  symmetrical  plan;  secondly, 
those  which  have  an  image  which  cannot  be  superposed  to 
them:  they  are  dissymmetrical.  A  chair,  for  instance,  is 
VOL.  I.  49  E 


THE  LIFE  OF    PASTEUR 

symmetrical,  or  a  straight  flight  of  steps.  But  a  spiral 
staircase  is  not  symmetrical,  its  own  image  cannot  be  laid 
over  it.  If  it  turns  to  the  right,  its  image  turns  to  the  left. 
In  the  same  way  the  right  hand  cannot  be  superposed  to 
the  left  hand,  a  righthand  glove  does  not  fit  a  left  hand, 
and  a  right  hand  seen  in  a  mirror  gives  the  image  of  a 
left  hand. 

Pasteur  noticed  that  the  crystals  of  tartaric  acid  and 
the  tartrates  had  little  faces,  which  had  escaped  even 
the  profound  observation  of  Mitscherlich  and  La  Provo- 
staye.  These  faces,  which  only  existed  on  one  half  of  the 
edges  or  similar  angles,  constituted  what  is  called  a  hemi- 
hedral  form.  When  the  crystal  was  placed  before  a  glass 
the  image  that  appeared  could  not  be  superposed  to  the 
crystal  ;  the  comparison  of  the  two  hands  was  applicable  to 
it.  Pasteur  thought  that  this  aspect  of  the  crystal  might 
be  an  index  of  what  existed  within  the  molecules,  dissym- 
metry of  form  corresponding  with  molecular  dissymmetry. 
Mitscherlich  had  not  perceived  that  his  tartrate  presented 
these  little  faces,  this  dissymmetry,  whilst  his  paratartrate 
was  without  them,  was  in  fact  not  hemihedral.  Therefore, 
reasoned  Pasteur,  the  deviation  to  the  right  of  the  plane  of 
polarization  produced  by  tartrate  and  the  optical  neutral- 
ity of  paratartrates  would  be  explained  by  a  structural 
law.  The  first  part  of  these  conclusions  was  confirmed  ; 
all  the  crystals  of  tartrate  proved  to  be  hemihedral.  But 
when  Pasteur  came  to  examine  the  crystals  of  paratartrate, 
hoping  to  find  none  of  them  hemihedral,  he  experienced  a 
keen  disappointment.  The  paratartrate  also  was  hemi- 
hedral, but  the  faces  of  some  of  the  crystals  were  inclined 
to  the  right,  and  those  of  others  to  the  left.  It  then 
occurred  to  Pasteur  to  take  up  these  crystals  one  by  one 
and  sort  them  carefully,  putting  on  one  side  those  which 

50 


I844-I849 

turned  to  the  left,  and  on  the  other  those  which  turned  to 
the  right.  He  thought  that  by  observing  their  respective 
solutions  in  the  polarizing  apparatus,  the  two  contrary 
hemihedral  forms  would  give  two  contrary  deviations  ;  and 
then,  by  mixing  together  an  equal  number  of  each  kind, 
as  no  doubt  Mitscherlich  had  done,  the  resulting  solution 
would  have  no  action  upon  light,  the  two  equal  and  directly 
opposite  deviations  exactly  neutralizing  each  other. 

With  anxious  and  beating  heart  he  proceeded  to  this 
experiment  with  the  polarizing  apparatus  and  exclaimed, 
"  I  have  it  !  "  His  excitement  was  such  that  he  could  not 
look  at  the  apparatus  again  ;  he  rushed  out  of  the  labora- 
tory, not  unlike  Archimedes.  He  met  a  curator  in  the 
passage,  embraced  him  as  he  would  have  embraced 
Chappuis,  and  dragged  him  out  with  him  into  the  Luxem- 
bourg garden  to  explain  his  discovery.  Many  confidences 
have  been  whispered  under  the  shade  of  the  tall  trees  of 
those  avenues,  but  never  was  there  greater  or  more 
exuberant  joy  on  a  young  man's  lips.  He  foresaw  all  the 
consequences  of  his  discovery.  The  hitherto  incompre- 
hensible constitution  of  paratartaric  or  racemic  acid  was 
explained  ;  he  differentiated  it  into  righthand  tartaric  acid, 
similar  in  every  way  to  the  natural  tartaric  acid  of  grapes, 
and  lefthand  tartaric  acid.  These  two  distinct  acids 
possess  equal  and  opposite  rotatory  powers  which  neutralize 
each  other  when  these  two  substances,  reduced  to  an 
aqueous  solution,  combine  spontaneously  in  equal  quan- 
tities. 

"  How  often,"  he  wrote  to  Chappuis  (May  5),  whom  he 
longed  to  have  with  him,  "  how  often  have  I  regretted  that 
we  did  not  both  take  up  the  same  study,  that  of  physical 
science.  We  who  so  often  talked  of  the  future,  we  did  not 
understand.    What  splendid  work  we  could  have  under- 

51 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

taken  and  would  be  undertaking  now  ;  and  what  could  we 
not  have  done  united  by  the  same  ideas,  the  same  love  of 
science,  the  same  ambition  !  I  would  we  were  twenty  and 
with  the  three  years  of  the  Ecole  before  us  !  "  Always 
fancying  that  he  could  have  done  more,  he  often  had  such 
retrospective  regrets.  He  was  impatient  to  begin  new 
researches,  when  a  sad  blow  fell  upon  him — his  mother  died 
almost  suddenly  of  apoplexy.  "She  succumbed  in  a  few 
hours,"  he  wrote  to  Chappuis  on  May  28,  "and  when  I 
reached  home  she  had  already  left  us.  I  have  asked  for  a 
holiday."  He  could  no  longer  work;  he  remained  steeped 
in  tears  and  buried  in  his  sorrow.  For  weeks  his  intel- 
lectual life  was  suspended. 

In  Paris,  in  the  scientific  world  perhaps  even  more  than 
in  any  other,  everything  gets  known,  repeated,  discussed. 
Pasteur's  researches  were  becoming  a  subject  of  conversa- 
tion. Balard,  with  his  strident  voice,  spoke  of  them  in  the 
library  at  the  Institute,  which  is  a  sort  of  drawing-room 
for  talkative  old  Academicians.  J.  B.  Dumas  listened 
gravely  ;  Biot,  old  Biot,  then  seventy-four  years  old,  ques- 
tioned the  story  with  some  scepticism.  "  Are  you  quite 
sure?"  he  would  ask,  his  head  a  little  on  one  side,  his 
words  slow  and  slightly  ironical.  He  could  hardly  believe, 
on  first  hearing  Balard,  that  a  new  doctor,  fresh  from  the 
Ecole  Normale,  should  have  overcome  a  difficulty  which  had 
proved  too  much  for  Mitscherlich.  He  did  not  care  for 
long  conversations  with  Balard,  and  as  the  latter  continued 
to  extol  Pasteur,  Biot  said,  "I  should  like  to  investigate 
that  young  man's  results." 

Besides  Pasteur's  deference  for  all  those  whom  he  looked 
upon  as  his  teachers,  he  also  felt  a  sort  of  general  gratitude 
for  their  services  to  Science.    Partly  from  an  infinite  re- 

52 


I 844-1 §49 

spect  and  partly  from  an  ardent  desire  to  convince  the  old 
scientist,  he  wrote  on  his  return  to  Paris  to  Biot,  whom  he 
did  not  know  personally,  asking  him  for  an  interview.  Biot 
answered:  "I  shall  be  pleased  to  verify  your  results  if 
you  will  communicate  them  confidentially  to  me.  Please 
believe  in  the  feelings  of  interest  inspired  in  me  by  all 
young  men  who  work  with  accuracy  and  perseverance." 

An  appointment  was  made  at  the  Collège  de  France/ 
where  Biot  lived.  Every  detail  of  that  interview  remained 
for  ever  fixed  in  Pasteur's  memory.  Biot  began  by  fetch- 
ing some  paratartaric  acid.  "I  have  most  carefully 
studied  it,"  he  said  to  Pasteur;  "  it  is  absolutely  neutral  in 
the  presence  of  polarized  light."  Some  distrust  was  visible 
in  his  gestures  and  audible  in  his  voice.  "I  shall  bring 
you  everything  that  is  necessary,"  continued  the  old  man, 
fetching  doses  of  soda  and  ammonia.  He  wanted  the  salt 
prepared  before  his  eyes. 

After  pouring  the  liquid  into  a  crystallizer,  Biot  took  it 
into  a  corner  of  his  room  to  be  quite  sure  that  no  one  would 
touch  it.  "I  shall  let  you  know  when  you  are  to  come 
back,"  he  said  to  Pasteur  when  taking  leave  of  him. 
Forty-eight  hours  later  some  crystals,  very  small  at  first, 
began  to  form;  when  there  was  a  sufficient  number  of 
them,  Pasteur  was  recalled.  Still  in  Biot's  presence, 
Pasteur  withdrew,  one  by  one,  the  finest  crystals  and  wiped 
off  the  mother-liquor  adhering  to  them.  He  then  pointed 
out  to  Biot  the  opposition  of  their  hemihedral  character, 
and  divided  them  into  two  groups — left  and  right. 

"So    you    affirm,"   said    Biot,    "that    your    righthand 

*  Collège  de  France.  An  establishment  of  superior  studies  founded 
in  Paris  by  Francis  I  in  1530,  and  where  public  lectures  are  given  on 
languages,  literature,  history,  mathematics,  physical  science,  etc.  It  was 
formerly  independent,  but  is  now  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ministry 
of  Public  Instruction.     [Trans.] 

53 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

crystals  will  deviate  to  the  right  the  plane  of  polarization, 
and  your  lefthand  ones  will  deviate  it  to  the  left?" 
*'  Yes,"  said  Pasteur. 
"Well,  let  me  do  the  rest." 

Biot  himself  prepared  the  solutions,  and  then  sent  again 
for  Pasteur.  Biot  first  placed  in  the  apparatus  the  solution 
which  should  deviate  to  the  left.  Having  satisfied  himself 
that  this  deviation  actually  took  place,  he  took  Pasteur's 
arm  and  said  to  him  these  words,  often  deservedly  quoted  : 
"  My  dear  boy,  I  have  loved  Science  so  much  during  my 
life,  that  this  touches  my  very  heart." 

"  It  was  indeed  evident,"  said  Pasteur  himself  in  recall- 
ing this  interview,  "  that  the  strongest  light  had  then  been 
thrown  on  the  cause  of  the  phenomenon  of  rotatory  polari- 
zation and  hemihedral  crystals  ;  a  new  class  of  isomeric 
substances  was  discovered  ;  the  unexpected  and  until  then 
unexampled  constitution  of  the  racemic  or  paratartaric 
acid  was  revealed;  in  one  word  a  great  and  unforeseen 
road  was  opened  to  science." 

Biot  now  constituted  himself  the  sponsor  in  scientific 
matters  of  his  new  young  friend,  and  undertook  to  report 
upon  Pasteur's  paper  entitled  :  ''  Researches  on  the  relations 
which  may  exist  between  crystalline  form,  chemical  com- 
position, and  the  direction  of  rotatory  power  " — destined  for 
the  Académie  des  Sciences. 

Biot  did  full  justice  to  Pasteur;  he  even  rendered  him 
homage,  and — not  only  in  his  own  name  but  also  in  that 
of  his  three  colleagues,  Regnault,  Balard,  and  Dumas — he 
suggested  that  the  Académie  should  declare  its  highest 
approbation  of  Pasteur's  treatise. 

Pasteur  did  not  conceive  greater  happiness  than  his 
laboratory  life,  and  yet  the  laboratories  of  that  time  were 
very  unlike  what  they  are  nowadays,  as  we  should  see  if 

54 


I844-I849 

the  laboratories  of  the  Collège  de  France,  of  the  Sorbonne, 
of  the  Ecole  Normale  had  been  preserved.  They  were  all 
that  Paris  could  offer  Europe,  and  Europe  certainly  had  no 
cause  to  covet  them.  Nowadays  the  most  humble  college, 
in  the  smallest  provincial  town,  would  not  accept  such  dens 
as  the  State  offered  (when  it  offered  them  any)  to  the 
greatest  French  scientists.  Claude  Bernard,  Magendie's 
curator,  worked  at  the  Collège  de  France  in  a  regular 
cellar.  Wurtz  only  had  a  lumber-room  in  the  attics  of  the 
Dupuytren  Museum.  Henri  Sainte  Claire  Deville,  before 
he  became  head  of  the  Besançon  Faculty,  had  not  even  as 
much;  he  was  relegated  to  one  of  the  most  miserable 
corners  of  the  Rue  Lafarge.  J.  B.  Dumas  did  not  care  to 
occupy  the  unhealthy  room  reserved  for  him  at  the 
Sorbonne  ;  his  father-in-law,  Alexandre  Brongniart,  having 
given  him  a  small  house  in  the  Rue  Cuvier,  opposite  the 
Jardin  des  Plantes,  he  had  had  it  transformed  into  a  labo- 
ratory and  was  keeping  it  up  at  his  own  expense.  He  was 
therefore  comfortably  situated,  but  he  was  exceptionally 
fortunate.  Every  scientist  who  had  no  private  means  to 
draw  upon  had  to  choose  between  the  miserable  cellars  and 
equally  miserable  garrets  which  were  all  that  the  State 
could  offer.  And  yet  it  was  more  tempting  than  a  Pro- 
fessor's chair  in  a  College  or  even  in  a  Faculty,  for  there 
one  could  not  give  oneself  up  entirely  to  one's  work. 

Nothing  would  have  seemed  more  natural  than  to  leave 
Pasteur  to  his  experiments.  But  his  appointment  to  some 
definite  post  could  no  longer  be  deferred,  in  spite  of 
Balard's  tumultuous  activity.  The  end  of  the  summer 
vacation  was  near,  there  was  a  vacancy:  Pasteur  was 
made  a  Professor  of  Physics  at  the  Dijon  Lycée.  The 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction  consented  to  allow  him  to 
postpone  his  departure  until  the  beginning  of  November,  in 

55 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

order  to  let  him  finish  some  work  begun  under  the  eye  ot 
Biot,  who  thought  and  dreamt  of  nothing  but  these  new 
investigations.  During  thirty  years  Biot  had  studied  the 
phenomena  of  rotatory  polarization.  He  had  called  the 
attention  of  chemists  to  these  phenomena,  but  his  call  had 
been  unheeded.  Continuing  his  solitary  labour,  he  had — in 
experimenting  on  cases  both  simple  and  complex — studied 
this  molecular  rotatory  power,  without  suspecting  that  this 
power  bore  a  definite  relation  to  the  hemihedral  form  of  some 
crystals.  And  now  that  the  old  man  was  a  witness  of  a 
triumphant  sequel  to  his  own  researches,  now  that  he  had 
the  joy  of  seeing  a  young  man  with  a  thoughtful  mind  and 
an  enthusiastic  heart  working  with  him,  now  that  the  hope 
of  this  daily  collaboration  shed  a  last  ray  on  the  close  oi 
his  life,  Pasteur's  departure  for  Dijon  came  as  a  real  blow. 
"If  at  least,"  he  said,  "they  were  sending  you  to  a 
Faculty  !"  He  turned  his  wrath  on  to  the  Government 
officials.  "They  don't  seem  to  realize  that  such  labours 
stand  above  everything  else!  If  they  only  knew  it,  two 
or  three  such  treatises  might  bring  a  man  straight  to  the 
Institut!" 

Nevertheless  Pasteur  had  to  go.  M.  Pouillet  gave  him  a 
letter  for  a  former  Polytechnician,^  now  a  civil  engineer  at 
Dijon,  a  M.  Parandier,  in  which  he  wrote — 

^  Polytechnician.  A  student  of  the  Ecole  Polytechnique,  â  military 
and  engineering  school  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Minister  of  War, 
founded  in  1794.  Candidates  for  admission  must  be  older  than  sixteen 
and  younger  than  twenty,  but  the  limit  of  age  is  raised  to  twenty-five  in 
the  case  of  private  soldiers  and  non-commissioned  officers.  They  must 
also  have  passed  their  baccalauréat  h  lettres  or  es  sciences — preferably 
the  latter.  After  two  years'  residence  (compulsory)  students  pass  a  leav- 
ing examination,  and  are  entered  according  to  their  list  number  as 
engineers  of  the  Navy,  Mines,  or  Civil  Works,  or  as  officers  in  the  military 
Engineers  or  in  the  Artillery  ;  the  two  last  then  have  to  go  through  one 
of  the  military  training  schools  (Ecoles  d'Application).  [Trans.] 

56 


I 844- I 849 

"  M.  Pasteur  is  a  most  distinguished  young  chemist.  He 
has  just  completed  some  very  remarkable  work,  and  I  hope 
it  will  not  be  long  before  he  is  sent  to  a  first-class  Faculty. 
I  need  add  nothing  else  about  him  ;  I  know  no  more  honest, 
industrious,  or  capable  young  man.  Help  him  as  much  as 
you  can  at  Dijon  ;  you  will  not  regret  it." 

Those  first  weeks  away  from  his  masters  and  from  his 
beloved  pursuits  seemed  very  hard  to  Pasteur.  But  he 
was  anxious  to  prove  himself  a  good  teacher.  This  duty 
appeared  to  him  to  be  a  noble  ideal,  and  to  involve  a  wide 
responsibility.  He  felt  none  of  the  self  satisfaction  which 
is  sometimes  a  source  of  strength  to  some  minds  conscious 
of  their  superiority  to  others.  He  did  not  even  do  himself 
the  justice  of  feeling  that  he  was  absolutely  sure  of  his 
subject.  He  wrote  to  Chappuis  (November  20,  1848)  :  "  I 
find  that  preparing  my  lessons  takes  up  a  great  deal  of 
time.  It  is  only  when  I  have  prepared  a  lesson  very  care- 
fully that  I  succeed  in  making  it  very  clear  and  capable 
of  compelling  attention.  If  I  neglect  it  at  all  I  lecture 
badly  and  become  unintelligible." 

He  had  both  first  and  second  year  pupils;  these  two 
classes  took  up  all  his  time  and  all  his  strength.  He  liked 
the  second  class  ;  it  was  not  a  very  large  one.  "  They  all 
work,"  Pasteur  wrote,  "  some  very  intelligently."  As  to 
the  first  year  class,  what  could  he  do  with  eighty  pupils  ? 
The  good  ones  were  kept  back  by  the  bad.  "  Don't  you 
think,"  he  wrote,  "that  it  is  a  mistake  not  to  limit  classes 
to  fifty  boys  at  the  most  ?  It  is  with  great  difficulty  that 
I  can  secure  the  attention  of  all  towards  the  end  of  the 
lesson.  I  have  only  found  one  means,  which  is  to  multiply 
experiments  at  the  last  moment." 

Whilst  he  was  eagerly  and  conscientiously  giving  him- 
self up  to  his  new  functions — not  without  some  bitterness, 

57 


THE   LIFE   OF  PASTEUR 

for  he  really  was  entitled  to  an  appointment  in  a  Faculty, 
and  he  could  not  pursue  his  favourite  studies — his  masters 
were  agitating  on  his  behalf.  Balard  was  clamouring  to 
have  him  as  an  assistant  at  the  Ecole  Normale.  Biot 
was  appealing  to  Baron  Thenard.  This  scientist  was  then 
Chairman  of  the  Grand  Council  of  the  Université.^  He 
had  been  a  pupil  of  Vauquelin,  a  friend  of  Laplace,  and  a 
collaborator  of  Gay-Lussac  ;  he  had  lectured  during  thirty 
years  at  the  Sorbonne,  at  the  Collège  de  France,  and  at 
the  Ecole  Polytechnique  ;  he  could  truthfully  boast  that  he 
had  had  40,000  pupils.  He  was,  like  J.  B.  Dumas,  a  born 
professor.  But,  whilst  Dumas  was  always  self  possessed 
and  dignified  in  his  demeanour,  his  very  smile  serious, 
Thenard,  a  native  of  Burgundy,  threw  his  whole  person- 
ality into  his  work,  a  broad  smile  on  his  beaming  face. 

He  was  now  (1848)  seventy  years  old,  and  the  memory 
of  his  teaching,  the  services  rendered  to  industry  by  his 
discoveries,  the  éclat  of  his  name  and  titles  contrasted  with 
his  humble  origin,  all  combined  to  render  him  more  than 
a  Chancellor  of  the  University;  he  was  in  fact  a  sort  of 
Field  Marshal  of  science,  and  all  powerful.  Three  years 
previously  he  had  much  scandalized  certain  red-tape 
officials  by  choosing  three  very  young  men — Puiseux, 
Delesse,  and  H.  Sainte  Claire  Deville — as  professors  for  the 


^  Université.  The  celebrated  body  known  as  Université  de  Paris,  and 
instituted  by  Philippe  Auguste  in  1200,  possessed  great  privileges  from 
its  earliest  times.  It  had  the  monopoly  of  teaching  and  a  jurisdiction 
of  its  own.  It  took  a  share  in  public  affairs  on  several  occasions,  and 
had  long  struggles  to  maintain  against  several  religious  orders.  The 
Université  was  suppressed  by  the  Convention,  but  re-organized  by 
Napoleon  I  in  1808.  It  is  now  subdivided  into  sixteen  Académies 
Universitaires,  each  of  which  is  administered  by  a  Rector.  The  title  of 
Grand  Master  of  the  Université  always  accompanies  that  of  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction.    [Trans.] 

58 


I844-I849 

new  Faculty  of  Science  at  Besançon.  He  had  accentuated 
this  authoritative  measure  by  making  Sainte  Claire  Deville 
Dean  of  the  Faculty.  In  the  unknown  professor  of  twenty- 
six,  he  had  divined  the  future  celebrated  scientist. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  1848  Pasteur  solicited  the  place 
of  assistant  to  M.  Delesse,  who  was  taking  a  long  leave 
of  absence.  This  would  have  brought  him  near  Arbois, 
besides  placing  him  in  a  Faculty.  He  asked  for  nothing 
more.  Thenard,  who  had  Biot's  report  in  his  hands,  under- 
took to  transmit  to  the  Minister  this  modest  and  natural 
request.  He  was  opposed  by  an  unexpected  argument — 
the  presentation  of  assistantships  belonged  to  each  Faculty. 
This  custom  was  unknown  to  Pasteur.  Thenard  was  un- 
able to  overcome  this  routine  formality.  Pasteur  thought 
that  the  unanimous  opinion  of  Thenard,  Biot,  and  Pouillet 
ought  to  have  prevailed.  "  I  can  practically  do  nothing 
here,"  he  wrote  on  the  sixth  of  December,  thinking  of  his 
interrupted  studies.  "  If  I  cannot  go  to  Besançon,  I  shall 
go  back  to  Paris  as  a  curator." 

His  father,  to  whom  he  paid  a  visit  for  the  new  year, 
persuaded  him  to  look  upon  things  more  calmly,  telling 
him  that  wisdom  repudiated  too  much  hurry.  Louis  de- 
ferred to  his  father's  opinion  to  the  extent  of  writing, 
on  January  2,  1849,  to  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion, begging  him  to  overlook  his  request.  However,  the 
members  of  the  Institute  who  had  taken  up  his  cause  did 
not  intend  to  be  thwarted  by  minor  difficulties.  Pasteur's 
letter  was  hardly  posted  when  he  received  an  assistant- 
ship,  not  at  the  Besançon  Faculty  but  at  Strasburg,  to  take 
the  place  of  M.  Persoz,  Professor  of  Chemistry,  who  was 
desirous  of  going  to  Paris. 

Pasteur,  on  his  arrival  at  Strasburg  (January  15)  was 
welcomed  by  the  Professor  of  Physics,  his  old  school  friend, 

59 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

the  Franc-Comtois  Bertin.  "  First  of  all,  you  are  coming 
to  live  with  me,"  said  Bertin  gleefully.  "You  could  not 
do  better;  it  is  a  stone's  throw  from  the  Faculté."  By 
living  with  Bertin,  Pasteur  acquired  a  companion  endowed 
with  a  rare  combination  of  qualities — a  quick  wit  and  an 
affectionate  heart.  Bertin  was  too  shrewd  to  be  duped, 
and  a  malicious  twinkle  often  lit  up  his  kindly  expression  ; 
with  one  apparently  careless  word,  he  would  hit  the  weak 
point  of  the  most  self  satisfied.  He  loved  those  who 
were  simple  and  true,  hence  his  affection  for  Pasteur.  His 
smiling  philosophy  contrasted  with  Pasteur's  robust  faith 
and  ardent  impetuosity.  Pasteur  admired,  but  did  not  often 
imitate,  the  peaceful  manner  with  which  Bertin,  affirming 
that  a  disappointment  often  proved  to  be  a  blessing  in  dis- 
guise, accepted  things  as  they  came.  In  order  to  prove 
that  this  was  no  paradox,  Bertin  used  to  tell  what  had 
happened  to  him  in  1839,  when  he  was  mathematical  pre- 
paration master  at  the  College  of  Luxeuil.  He  was  entitled 
to  200  francs  a  month,  but  payment  was  refused  him.  This 
injustice  did  not  cause  him  to  recriminate,  but  he  quietly 
tendered  his  resignation.  He  went  in  for  the  Ecole  Nor- 
male examination,  entered  the  school  at  the  head  of  the 
list,  and  subsequently  became  Professor  of  Physics  at  the 
Strasburg  Faculty.  "If  it  had  not  been  for  my  former 
disappointment,  I  should  still  be  at  Luxeuil."  He  was  now 
perfectly  satisfied,  thinking  that  nothing  could  be  better 
than  to  be  a  Professor  in  a  Faculty  ;  but  this  absence  of 
any  sort  of  ambition  did  not  prevent  him  from  giving  his 
teaching  the  most  scrupulous  attention.  He  prepared  his 
lessons  with  extreme  care,  endeavouring  to  render  them 
absolutely  clear.  He  took  great  personal  interest  in  his 
pupils,  and  often  helped  them  with  his  advice  in  the  interval 
between  class  hours.    This  excellent  man's  whole  life  was 

60 


I 844-1849 

spent  in  working  for  others,  and  to  be  useful  was  ever  to 
him  the  greatest  satisfaction. 

Perhaps  Pasteur  was  stimulated  by  Bertin's  example 
to  give  excessive  importance  to  minor  matters  in  his 
first  lessons.  He  writes:  " I  gave  too  much  thought  to  the 
style  of  my  two  first  lectures,  and  they  were  anything  but 
good;  but  I  think  the  subsequent  ones  were  more  satis- 
factory, and  I  feel  I  am  improving."  His  lectures  were 
well  attended,  for  the  numerous  industries  of  Alsace  gave 
to  chemistry  quite  a  place  by  itself. 

Everything  pleased  him  in  Strasburg  save  its  distance 
from  Arbois.  He  who  could  concentrate  his  thoughts  for 
weeks,  for  months  even,  on  one  subject,  who  could  be- 
come as  it  were  a  prisoner  of  his  studies,  had  withal  an 
imperious  longing  for  family  life.  His  rooms  in  Bertin's 
house  suited  him  all  the  better  that  they  were  large 
enough  for  him  to  entertain  one  of  his  relations.  His 
father  wrote  in  one  of  his  letters:  "You  say  that  you  will 
not  marry  for  a  long  time,  that  you  will  ask  one  of  your 
sisters  to  live  with  you.  I  could  wish  it  for  you  and  for 
them,  for  neither  of  them  wishes  for  a  greater  happiness. 
Both  desire  nothing  better  than  to  look  after  your  comfort  ; 
you  are  absolutely  everything  to  them.  One  may  meet 
with  sisters  as  good  as  they  are,  but  certainly  with  none 
better." 

Louis  Pasteur's  circle  of  dear  ones  was  presently  en- 
larged by  his  intimacy  with  another  family.  The  new 
Rector  of  the  Academy  of  Strasburg,  M.  Laurent,  had 
arrived  in  October.  He  was  no  relation  to  the  chemist  of 
the  same  name,  and  the  place  he  was  about  to  take  in 
Pasteur's  life  was  much  greater  than  that  held  by  Auguste 
Laurent  at  the  time  when  they  were  working  together  in 
Balard's  laboratory. 

61 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

After  having  begun,  in  1812,  as  preparation  master  in  the 
then  Imperial  College  of  Louis  le  Grand,  M.  Laurent  had 
become,  in  1826,  head  master  of  the  College  of  Riom.  He 
found  at  Riom  more  tutors  than  pupils  ;  there  were  only 
three  boys  in  the  school!  Thanks  to  M.  Laurent,  those 
three  soon  became  one  hundred  and  thirty-four.  From  Riom 
he  was  sent  to  Guéret,  then  to  Saintes,  to  save  a  college  in 
imminent  danger  of  disappearing  ;  there  were  struggles  be- 
tween the  former  head  master  and  the  Mayor,  the  town 
refused  the  subsidies,  all  was  confusion.  Peace  immediately 
followed  his  arrival.  "Those  who  have  known  him,"  wrote 
M.  Pierron  in  the  Revue  de  V Instruction  Publique,  "  will 
not  be  surprised  at  such  miracles  coming  from  a  man  so 
intelligent  and  so  active,  so  clever,  amiable,  and  warm- 
hearted." Wherever  he  was  afterwards  sent,  at  Orleans, 
Angoulême,  Douai,  Toulouse,  Cahors,  he  worked  the  same 
charm,  born  of  kindness.  At  Strasburg,  he  had  made  of 
the  Académie  a  home  where  all  the  Faculty  found  a  simple 
and  cordial  welcome.  Madame  Laurent  was  a  modest 
woman  who  tried  to  efface  herself,  but  whose  exquisite 
qualities  of  heart  and  mind  could  not  remain  hidden.  The 
eldest  of  her  daughters  was  married  to  M.  Zevort,  whose 
name  became  doubly  dear  to  the  Université.  The  two 
younger  ones,  brought  up  in  habits  of  industry  and  un- 
selfishness which  seemed  natural  to  them,  brightened  the 
home  by  their  youthful  gaiety. 

When  Pasteur  on  his  arrival  called  on  this  family,  he 
had  the  feeling  that  happiness  lay  there.  He  had  seen  at 
Arbois  how,  through  the  daily  difficulties  of  manual  labour, 
his  parents  looked  at  life  from  an  exalted  point  of  view, 
appreciating  it  from  that  standard  of  moral  perfection 
which  gives  dignity  and  grandeur  to  the  humblest  existence. 
In  this  family — of  a  higher  social  position  than  his  own — he 

62 


I844-I849 

again  found  the  same  high  ideal,  and,  with  great  superiority 
of  education,  the  same  simple-mindedness.  When  Pasteur 
entered  for  the  first  time  the  Laurent  family  circle,  he 
immediately  felt  the  delightful  impression  of  being  in  a 
thoroughly  congenial  atmosphere  ;  a  communion  of  thoughts 
and  feelings  seemed  established  after  the  first  words,  the 
first  looks  exchanged  between  him  and  his  hosts. 

In  the  evening,  at  the  restaurant  where  most  of  the 
younger  professors  dined,  he  heard  others  speak  of  the 
kindliness  and  strict  justice  of  the  Rector  ;  and  everyone 
expressed  respect  for  his  wonderfully  united  family. 

At  one  of  M.  Laurent's  quiet  evening  "  at  homes,"  Bertin 
was  saying  of  Pasteur,  "  You  do  not  often  meet  with  such  a 
hard  worker  ;  no  attraction  ever  can  take  him  away  from 
his  work."  The  attraction  now  came,  however,  and  it  was 
such  a  powerful  one  that,  on  February  10,  only  a  fortnight 
after  his  arrival,  Pasteur  addressed  to  M.  Laurent  the 
following  official  letter  : — 

"  Sir,— 

"An  offer  of  the  greatest  importance  to  me  and  to 
your  family  is  about  to  be  made  to  you  on  my  behalf  ;  and 
I  feel  it  my  duty  to  put  you  in  possession  of  the  following 
facts,  which  may  have  some  weight  in  determining  your 
acceptance  or  refusal. 

"  My  father  is  a  tanner  in  the  small  town  of  Arbois  in  the 
Jura,  my  sisters  keep  house  for  him,  and  assist  him  with  his 
books,  taking  the  place  of  my  mother  whom  we  had  the 
misfortune  to  lose  in  May  last. 

•'  My  family  is  in  easy  circumstances,  but  with  no  fortune  ; 
I  do  not  value  what  we  possess  at  more  than  50,000  francs, 
and,  as  for  me,  I  have  long  ago  decided  to  hand  over  to  my 
sisters  the  whole  of  what  should  be  my  share.     I  have 

63 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

therefore  absolutely  no  fortune.  My  only  means  are  good 
health,  some  courage,  and  my  position  in  the  Université. 

"  I  left  the  Ecole  Normale  two  years  ago,  an  agrégé  in 
physical  science.  I  have  held  a  Doctor's  degree  eighteen 
months,  and  I  have  presented  to  the  Académie  a  few  works 
which  have  been  very  well  received,  especially  the  last  one, 
upon  which  a  report  was  made  which  I  now  have  the 
honour  to  enclose. 

"  This,  Sir,  is  all  my  present  position.  As  to  the  future, 
unless  m}»"  tastes  should  completely  change,  I  shall  give 
myself  up  entirely  to  chemical  research.  I  hope  to  return 
to  Paris  when  I  have  acquired  some  reputation  through  my 
scientific  labours.  M.  Biot  has  often  told  me  to  think 
seriously  about  the  Institute  ;  perhaps  I  may  do  so  in  ten  or 
fifteen  years'  time,  and  after  assiduous  work  ;  but  this  is  but 
a  dream,  and  not  the  motive  which  makes  me  love  Science 
for  Science's  sake. 

"  My  father  will  himself  come  to  Strasburg  to  make  this 
proposal  of  marriage. 

"  Accept,  Sir,  the  assurance  of  my  profound  respect,  etc. 

"  P.S. — I  was  twenty-six  on  December  27." 

A  definite  answer  was  adjourned  for  a  few  weeks. 
Pasteur,  in  a  letter  to  Madame  Laurent,  wrote,  "  I  am  afraid 
that  Mile.  Marie  may  be  influenced  by  early  impressions, 
unfavourable  to  me.  There  is  nothing  in  me  to  attract  a 
young  girl's  fancy.  But  my  recollections  tell  me  that 
those  who  have  known  me  very  well  have  loved  me  ver3'- 
much." 

Of  these  letters,  religiously  preserved,  fragments  like  the 
following  have  also  been  obtained.  "  All  that  I  beg  of  you, 
Mademoiselle  (he  had  now  been  authorised  to  address  him- 
self directly  to  her)  is  that  you  will  not  judge  me  too  hastily, 

64 


I844-I849 

and  therefore  misjudge  me.  Time  will  show  you  that  below 
my  cold,  shy  and  unpleasing  exterior,  there  is  a  heart  full 
of  affection  for  you  !"  In  another  letter,  evidently  re- 
morseful at  forsaking  the  laboratory,  he  says,  "  I,  who 
did  so  love  my  crystals  !  " 

He  loved  them  still,  as  is  proved  by  an  answer  from  Biot 
to  a  proposal  of  Pasteur's.  In  order  to  spare  the  old  man's 
failing  sight,  Pasteur  had  the  ingenious  idea  of  cutting  out  of 
pieces  of  cork,  with  exquisite  skill,  some  models  of  crystal- 
line types  greatly  enlarged.  He  had  tinted  the  edges  and 
faces,  and  nothing  was  easier  than  to  recognize  their  hemihe- 
dral  character.  "  I  accept  with  great  pleasure,"  wrote  Biot 
on  April  7,  "  the  offer  you  make  me  of  sending  me  a  small 
quantity  of  your  two  acids,  with  models  of  their  crystalline 
types."  He  meant  the  righthand  tartaric  acid  and  the 
lefthand  tartaric  acid,  which  Pasteur — not  to  pronounce 
too  hastily  on  their  identity  with  ordinarj''  tartaric  acid — 
then  called  dextroracemic  and  lœvoracemic. 

Pasteur  wished  to  go  further  :  he  was  now  beginning  to 
study  the  crystallizations  of  formate  of  strontian.  Com- 
paring them  with  those  of  the  paratartrates  of  soda  and 
ammonia,  surprised  and  uneasy  at  the  differences  he 
observed,  he  once  exclaimed,  "  Ah  !  formate  of  strontian,  if 
only  I  had  got  you  !"  to  the  immense  amusement  of  Bertin, 
who  long  afterwards  used  to  repeat  this  invocation  with 
mock  enthusiasm. 

Pasteur  was  about  to  send  these  crystals  to  Biot,  but  the 
latter  wrote,  "  Keep  them  until  you  have  thoroughly  investi- 
gated them.  .  .  .  You  can  depend  on  my  wish  to  serve  you 
in  every  circumstance  when  my  assistance  can  be  of  any 
use  to  you,  and  also  on  the  great  interest  with  which  you 
have  inspired  me." 

Regnault  and  Senarmont  had  been  invited  by  Biot  to 

VOL.  I.  65  F 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

examine  the  valuable  samples  received  from  Strasburg, 
the  dextroracemic  and  laevoracemic  acids.  Biot  wrote  to 
Pasteur,  "  We  might  make  up  our  minds  to  sacrifice  a 
small  portion  of  the  two  acids  in  order  to  reconstitute  the 
racemic,  but  we  doubt  whether  we  should  be  capable  of 
discerning  it  with  certainty  by  those  crystals  when  they 
are  formed.  You  must  show  it  us  yourself,  when  you 
come  to  Paris  for  the  holidays.  Whilst  arranging  my 
chemical  treasures,  I  came  upon  a  small  quantity  of 
racemic  acid  which  I  thought  I  had  lost.  It  would  be 
sufficient  for  the  microscopical  experiments  that  I  might 
eventually  have  to  make.  So  if  the  small  phial  of  it  that  you 
saw  here  would  be  useful  to  you,  let  me  know,  and  I  will 
willingly  send  it.  In  this,  as  in  everything  else,  you 
will  always  find  me  most  anxious  to  second  you  in  your 
labours." 

This  period  was  all  happiness.  Pasteur's  father  and  his 
sister  Josephine  came  to  Strasburg.  The  proposal  of 
marriage  was  accepted,  the  father  returned  to  Arbois, 
Josephine  staying  behind.  She  remained  to  keep  house 
and  to  share  the  everyday  life  of  her  brother,  whom  she 
loved  with  a  mixture  of  pride,  tenderness  and  solicitude. 
In  her  devoted  sisterly  generosity,  she  resigned  herself  to 
the  thought  that  her  happy  dream  must  be  of  short  duration. 
The  wedding  was  fixed  for  May  29. 

"  I  believe,"  wrote  Pasteur  to  Chappuis,  "  that  I  shall  be 
very  happy.  Every  quality  I  could  wish  for  in  a  wife  I 
find  in  her.  You  will  say,  '  He  is  in  love  !  '  Yes,  but  I  do 
not  think  I  exaggerate  at  all,  and  my  sister  Josephine 
quite  agrees  with  me." 


66 


CHAPTER  III 
I  850-1  854 

FROM  the  very  beginning  Mme.  Pasteur  not  only  ad- 
mitted, but  approved,  that  the  laboratory  should  come 
before  everything  else.  She  would  willingly  have  adopted  the 
typographic  custom  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences  Reports, 
where  the  word  Science  is  always  spelt  with  a  capital  S. 
It  was  indeed  impossible  to  live  with  her  husband  without 
sharing  his  joys,  anxieties  and  renewed  hopes,  as  they 
appeared  day  by  day  reflected  in  his  admirable  eyes — eyes 
of  a  rare  grey-green  colour  like  the  sparkle  of  a  Ceylon 
gem.  Before  certain  scientific  possibilities,  the  flame  of 
enthusiasm  shone  in  those  deep  eyes,  and  the  whole  stern 
face  was  illumined.  Between  domestic  happiness  and 
prospective  researches,  Pasteur's  life  was  complete.  But 
this  couple,  who  had  now  shared  everything  for  more  than 
a  year,  was  to  suffer  indirectly  through  the  new  law  on  the 
liberty  of  teaching. 

Devised  by  some  as  an  effort  at  compromise  between  the 
Church  and  the  University,  considered  by  others  as  a  scope 
for  competition  against  State  education,  the  law  of  1850 
brought  into  the  Superior  Council  of  Public  Instruction 
four  archbishops  or  bishops,  elected  by  their  colleagues. 
In  each  Department  ^  an  Academy  Council  was  instituted, 

'  Départements.  The  present  divisions  of  French  territory,  numbering 
eighty-seven  in  all.  Each  department  is  administered  by  a  préfet^  and 
subdivided  into  arrondissements^  each  of  which  has  a  sous-préfet.  [Trans.] 

67 


THE   LIFE  OF   PASTEUR 

and,  in  this  parcelling  out  of  University  jurisdiction,  the 
right  of  presence  was  recognized  as  belonging  to  the  bishop 
or  his  delegate.  But  all  these  advantages  did  not  satisfy 
those  who  called  themselves  Catholics  before  everything 
else.  The  rupture  between  Louis  Veuillot  on  one  side  and, 
on  the  other,  Falloux  and  Montalembert,  the  principal 
authors  of  this  law,  dates  from  that  time. 

"What  we  understood  by  the  liberty  of  teaching,"  wrote 
Louis  Veuillot,  "  was  not  a  share  given  to  the  Church,  but 
the  destruction  of  monopoly.  ...  No  alliance  with  the 
University  !  Away  with  its  books,  inspectors,  examina- 
tions, certificates,  diplomas  !  All  that  means  the  hand  of 
the  State  laid  on  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  ;  it  is  the  breath 
of  incredulity  on  the  younger  generation."  Confronted  by 
the  violent  rejection  of  any  attempt  at  reconciliation  and 
threatened  interference  with  the  University  on  the  part  of 
the  Church,  the  Government  was  trying  to  secure  to  itself 
the  whole  teaching  fraternity. 

The  primary  schoolmasters  groaned  under  the  heavy 
yoke  of  the  prefects.  "  These  deep  politicians  only  know 
how  to  dismiss.  .  .  .  The  rectors  will  become  the  valets  of 
the  prefects  ..."  wrote  Pasteur  with  anger  and  distress 
in  a  letter  dated  July,  1850.  After  the  primary  schools, 
the  attacks  now  reached  the  colleges.  The  University  was 
accused  of  attending  exclusively  to  Latin  verse  and  Greek 
translations,  and  of  neglecting  the  souls  of  the  students. 
Romieu,  who  ironically  dubbed  the  University  "  Alma 
Parens,"  and  attacked  it  most  bitterly,  seemed  hardly  fitted 
for  the  part  of  justiciary.  He  was  a  former  pupil  of  the 
Ecole  Polytechnique,  who  wrote  vaudevilles  until  he  was 
made  a  prefect  by  Louis  Philippe.  He  was  celebrated 
for  various  tricks  which  amused  Paris  and  disconcerted 
the  Government,  much  to  the  joy  of  the  Prince  de  Join- 

68 


I850-I854 

ville,  ^  who  loved  such  mystifications.  After  the  fall  of  Louis 
Philippe,  Romieu  became  a  totally  different  personality.  He 
had  been  supposed  to  take  nothing  seriously  ;  he  now  put  a 
tragic  construction  on  everything.  He  became  a  prophet 
of  woe,  declaring  that  "  gangrene  was  devouring  the  souls 
of  eight  year  old  children."  According  to  him,  faith, 
respect,  all  was  being  destroyed  ;  he  anathematized  In- 
struction without  Education,  and  stigmatized  village  school- 
masters as  "  obscure  apostles  "  charged  with  "  preaching 
the  doctrines  of  revolt."  This  violence  was  partly  oratory, 
but  oratory  does  not  minimize  violence,  it  excites  it. 
Every  pamphleteer  ends  by  being  a  bond-slave  to  his  own 
phraseology. 

When  Romieu  appeared  in  Strasburg  as  an  Envoy  Extra- 
ordinary entrusted  by  the  Government  with  a  general 
inquiry,  he  found  that  M.  Laurent  did  not  answer  to  that 
ideal  of  a  functionary  which  was  entertained  by  a  certain 
party.  M.  Laurent  had  the  very  highest  respect  for  jus- 
tice ;  he  distrusted  the  upstarts  whose  virtues  were  very 
much  on  the  surface  ;  he  never  decided  on  the  fate  of  an 
inferior  without  the  most  painstaking  inquiry  ;  he  did  not 
look  on  an  accidental  mistake  as  an  unpardonable  fault  ;  he 
refused  to  take  any  immediate  and  violent  measures  :  all 
this  caused  him  to  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion.  "  The 
influence  of  the  Rector  "  (thus  ran  Romieu's  official  report) 
"is  hardly,  if  at  all,  noticeable.  He  should  be  replaced  by  a 
safe  man." 

The  minister  of  Public  Instruction,  M.  de  Parieu,  had  to 
bow  before  the  formal  wish  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
founded  upon  peremptory  arguments  of  this  kind.      M. 

*  Prince  de  Joinville.  Third  son  of  Louis  Philippe,  and  an  Admiral 
in  the  French  navy.  It  was  he  who  was  sent  to  fetch  Napoleon's  remains 
from  St.  Helena.  [Trans.] 

69 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Laurent  was  offered  the  post  of  Rector  at  Châteauroux,  a 
decided  step  downward.  He  refused,  left  Strasburg,  and, 
with  no  complaint  or  recriminations,  retired  into  private  life 
at  the  age  of  fifty-five. 

It  was  when  this  happy  family  circle  was  just  about  to  be 
enlarged  that  its  quiet  was  thus  broken  into  by  this 
untoward  result  of  political  agitation.  M.  Laurent's 
youngest  daughter  soon  after  became  engaged  to  M.  Loir, 
a  professor  at  the  Strasburg  Pharmaceutical  School,  who 
had  been  a  student  at  the  Ecole  Normale,  and  who  ulti- 
mately became  Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Sciences  at  Lyons. 
He  was  then  preparing,  assisted  by  Pasteur,  his  "  thesis  " 
for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Science.  In  this  he  announced 
some  new  results  based  on  the  simultaneous  existence  of 
hemihedral  crystalline  forms  and  the  rotatory  power.  He 
wrote,  "  I  am  happy  to  have  brought  new  facts  to  bear  upon 
the  law  that  M.  Pasteur  has  enunciated." 

"  Why  are  you  not  a  professor  of  physics  or  chemistry  !  " 
wrote  Pasteur  to  Chappuis ;  "we  should  work  together, 
and  in  ten  years'  time  we  would  revolutionize  chemistry. 
There  are  wonders  hidden  in  crystallization,  and,  through 
it,  the  inmost  construction  of  substances  will  one  day  be 
revealed.  If  you  come  to  Strasburg,  you  shall  become  a 
chemist  ;  I  shall  talk  to  you  of  nothing  but  crystals." 

The  vacation  was  always  impatiently  awaited  by  Pasteur. 
He  was  able  to  work  more,  and  to  edit  the  result  of  his 
researches  in  an  extract  for  the  Académie  des  Sciences. 
On  October  2  his  friend  received  the  following  letter:  "  On 
Monday  I  presented  this  year's  work  to  the  '  Institut.'  I 
read  a  long  extract  from  it,  and  then  gave  a  viva  voce 
demonstration  relative  to  some  crystallographic  details. 
This  demonstration,  which  I  had  been  specially  desired  to 
give,   was    quite  against  the  prevailing  customs  of  the 

70 


I850-I854 

Académie.  I  gave  it  with  my  usual  delight  in  that  sort  of 
thing,  and  it  was  followed  with  great  attention.  Fortunately 
for  me,  the  most  influential  members  of  the  Académie  were 
present.  M.  Dumas  sat  almost  facing  me.  I  looked  at  him 
several  times,  and  he  expressed  by  an  approving  nod  of  his 
head  that  he  understood  and  was  much  interested.  He 
asked  me  to  his  house  the  next  day,  and  congratulated  me. 
He  said,  amongst  other  things,  that  I  was  a  proof  that  when 
a  Frenchman  took  up  crystallography  he  knew  what  he 
was  about,  and  also  that  if  I  persevered,  as  he  felt  sure  I 
should,  I  should  become  the  founder  of  a  school. 

"  M.  Biot,  whose  kindness  to  me  is  beyond  all  expression, 
came  to  me  after  my  lecture  and  said,  '  It  is  as  good  as  it 
can  possibly  be.'  On  October  14  he  will  give  his  report  on 
my  work  ;  he  declares  I  have  discovered  a  very  California. 
Do  not  suppose  I  have  done  anything  wonderful  this 
year.  This  is  but  a  satisfactory  consequence  of  preceding 
work." 

In  his  report  (postponed  until  October  28)  Biot  was  more 
enthusiastic.  He  praised  the  numerous  and  unforeseen 
results  brought  out  by  Pasteur  within  the  last  two  years. 
"  He  throws  light  upon  everything  he  touches,"  he 
said. 

To  be  praised  by  Biot  was  a  rare  favour  ;  his  diatribes 
were  better  known.  In  a  secret  committee  of  the  Académie 
des  Sciences  (January,  1851)  the  Académie  had  to  pronounce 
on  the  merits  of  two  candidates  for  a  professorship  at  the 
Collège  de  France  :  Balard,  a  professor  of  the  Faculty  of 
Science,  chief  lecturer  of  the  Ecole  Normale,  and  Laurent 
the  chemist,  who  in  order  to  live  had  been  compelled  to 
accept  a  situation  as  assayer  at  the  Mint.  Biot,  with  his 
halting  step,  arrived  at  the  Committee  room  and  spoke  thus  : 
"  The  title  of  Member  of  the  Institute  is  the  highest  reward 

71 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

and  the  greatest  honour  that  a  French  scientist  can  receive, 
but  it  does  not  constitute  a  privilege  of  inactivity  that  need 
only  be  claimed  in  order  to  obtain  everything.  .  .  .  For 
several  years.  M.  Balard  has  been  in  possession  of  two  large 
laboratories  vrhere  he  might  have  executed  srnj  work 
dictated  to  him  by  his  zeal,  whilst  nearly  all  M.  Laurent's 
results  have  been  effected  by  his  unaided  personal  efforts 
at  the  cost  of  heavy  sacrifices.  If  you  give  the  college 
vacancy  to  M.  Balard.  you  will  add  nothing  to  the  oppor- 
tunities for  study  which  he  already  has;  but  it  will  take 
away  from  M.  Laurent  the  means  of  work  that  he  lacks 
and  that  we  have  now  the  opportunity  of  providing  for  him. 
The  chemical  section,  and  indeed  the  whole  Academy''  will 
easily  judge  on  which  side  are  scientific  justice  and  the 
interests  of  future  progress." 

Biot  had  this  little  speech  printed  and  sent  a  copy  of  it 
to  Pasteur.  The  incident  led  to  a  warm  dispute,  and  Biot 
lost  his  cause.  Pasteur  wrote  to  Chappuis,  "'  M.  Biot  has 
done  everything  that  was  possible  to  do  in  order  that 
M.  Laurent  should  win,  and  the  final  result  is  a  great  griet 
to  him.  But  really,"  the  younger  man  added,  more  indul- 
gent than  the  old  man,  and  divided  between  his  wishes  for 
Laurent  and  the  fear  of  the  sorrow  Balard  would  have  felt, 
"  M.  Balard  would  not  have  deserved  so  much  misfortune. 
Think  of  the  disgrace  it  would  have  been  to  him  if  there 
had  been  a  second  vote  favourable  to  Laurent,  especially 
coming  from  the  Institute  of  which  he  is  a  member."  At 
the  end  of  that  campaign,  Biot  in  a  fit  of  misanthropy  which 
excepted  Pasteur  alone,  and  knowing  that  Pasteur  had 
spoken  with  effusion  of  their  mutual  feelings,  wrote  to  him 
as  foUows  :  ''I  am  touched  b}-  your  acknowledgment  ot 
my  deep  and  sincere  affection  for  you,  and  I  thank  you  for  it. 
But  whilst  keeping  your  attachment  for  me  as  I  preser^^e 

72 


I850-I854 

mine  for  you,  let  me  for  the  future  rejoice  in  it  in  the  secret 
recesses  of  my  heart  and  of  yours.  The  world  is  jealous  of 
friendships  however  disinterested,  and  my  affection  for  you 
is  such  that  I  wish  people  to  feel  that  they  honour  them- 
selves by  appreciating  you,  rather  than  that  they  should 
know  that  you  love  me  and  that  I  love  you.  Farewell. 
Persevere  in  your  good  feelings  as  in  your  splendid  career, 
and  be  happy.     Your  friend." 

The  character  of  Biot,  a  puzzle  to  Sainte  Beuve,  seems 
easier  to  understand  after  reading  those  letters,  written  in 
a  small  conscientious  hand.  The  great  critic  wrote:  "Who 
will  give  us  the  secret  key  to  Biot's  complex  nature,  to  the 
curiosities,  aptitudes,  envies,  prejudices,  sympathies,  anti- 
pathies, folds  and  creases  of  every  kind  in  his  character  ?  '  ' 
Even  with  no  other  documents,  the  history  of  his  relations 
with  Pasteur  would  throw  light  upon  this  nature,  not  so 
"  complex  "  after  all.  From  the  day  when  Pasteur  worked 
out  his  first  experiment  before  Biot,  at  first  suspicious,  then 
astonished  and  finally  touched  to  the  heart,  until  the  period 
of  absolute  mutual  confidence  and  friendship,  we  see  rising 
before  us  the  image  of  this  true  scientist,  with  his  rare 
independence,  his  good-will  towards  laborious  men  and  his 
mercilessness  to  every  man  who,  loving  not  Science  for  its 
own  sake,  looked  upon  a  discovery  as  a  road  to  fortune, 
pecuniary  or  political. 

He  loved  both  science  and  letters,  and,  now  that  age  had 
bent  his  tall  form,  instead  of  becoming  absorbed  in  his  own 
recollections  and  the  contemplation  of  his  own  labours,  he 
kept  his  mind  open,  happy  to  learn  more  every  day  and  to 
anticipate  the  future  of  Pasteur. 

During  the  vacation  of  1851  Pasteur  came  to  Paris  to 
bring  Biot  the  results  of  new  researches  on  aspartic  and 
malic  acids,  and  he  desired  his  father  to  join  him  in  order 

73 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

to  efface  the  sad  impression  left  by  his  former  journey  in 
1838.  Biot  and  his  wife  welcomed  the  father  and  son  as 
they  would  have  welcomed  very  few  friends.  Touched  by 
so  much  kindness,  Joseph  Pasteur  on  his  return  in  June 
wrote  Biot  a  letter  full  of  gratitude,  venturing  at  the  same 
time  to  send  the  only  thing  it  was  in  his  power  to  offer,  a 
basket  of  fruit  from  his  garden.  Biot  answered  as  follows  : 
"  Sir,  my  wife  and  I  very  much  appreciate  the  kind  expres- 
sions in  the  letter  5'ou  have  done  me  the  honour  of  writing 
me.  Our  welcome  to  you  was  indeed  as  hearty  as  it  was 
sincere,  for  I  assure  5-ou  that  we  could  not  see  without  the 
deepest  interest  such  a  good  and  honourable  father  sitting 
at  our  modest  table  with  so  good  and  distinguished  a  son. 
I  have  never  had  occasion  to  show  that  excellent  young 
man  any  feelings  but  those  of  esteem  founded  on  his  merit, 
and  an  affection  inspired  by  his  personality.  It  is  the 
greatest  pleasure  that  I  can  experience  in  my  old  age,  to 
see  young  men  of  talent  working  industriously  and  trying 
to  progress  in  a  scientific  career  by  means  of  steady  and 
persevering  labour,  and  not  by  wretched  intriguing.  That 
is  what  has  made  your  son  dear  to  me,  and  his  affection  for 
me  adds  yet  to  his  other  claims  and  increases  that  which  I 
feel  for  him.  We  are  therefore  even  with  one  another.  As 
to  your  kindness  in  wishing  that  I  should  taste  fruit  from 
your  garden,  I  am  very  grateful  for  it,  and  I  accept  it  as 
cordially  as  you  send  it." 

Pasteur  had  also  brought  Biot  some  other  products — a 
case  full  of  new  crystals.  Starting  from  the  external 
configuration  of  cr^'stals,  he  penetrated  the  individual 
constitution  of  their  molecular  groups,  and  from  this  point 
of  departure,  he  then  had  recourse  to  the  resources  of 
chemistry  and  optics.  Biot  never  ceased  to  admire  the 
sagacity  of  the  young  experimentalist  who   had  turned 

74 


I 850-1 854 

what  had  until  then  been  a  mere  crystallographic  character 
into  an  element  of  chemical  research. 

Equally  interested  by  the  general  consequences  of  these 
studies,  so  delicate  and  so  precise,  M.  de  Senarmont  wished 
in  his  turn  to  examine  the  crystals.  No  one  approved  more 
fully  than  he  the  expressions  of  the  old  scientist,  who  ended 
in  this  way  his  1851  report  :  "  If  M.  Pasteur  persists  in  the 
road  he  has  opened,  it  may  be  predicted  of  him  that  what  he 
has  found  is  nothing  to  what  he  will  find."  And,  delighted 
to  see  the  important  position  that  Pasteur  was  taking  at 
Strasburg  and  the  unexpected  extension  of  crystallography, 
Biot  wrote  to  him:  "I  have  read  with  much  interest  the 
thesis  of  your  brother-in-law,  M.  Loir.  It  is  well  conceived 
and  well  written,  and  he  establishes  with  clearness  many 
very  curious  facts.  M.  de  Senarmont  has  also  read  it  with 
very  great  pleasure,  and  I  beg  you  will  transmit  our  united 
congratulations  to  your  brother-in-law."  Biot  added,  mix- 
ing as  he  was  wont  family  details  with  scientific  ideas  : 
"  We  highly  appreciated  your  father,  the  rectitude  of  his 
judgment,  his  firm,  calm,  simple  reason  and  the  enlightened 
love  he  bears  you." 

"  My  plan  of  study  is  traced  for  this  coming  year,"  wrote 
Pasteur  to  Chappuis  at  the  end  of  December.  "I  am 
hoping  to  develop  it  shortly  in  the  most  successful  manner. 
...  I  think  I  have  already  told  you  that  I  am  on  the  verge 
of  mysteries,  and  that  the  veil  which  covers  them  is  getting 
thinner  and  thinner.  The  nights  seem  to  me  too  long,  yet 
I  do  not  complain,  for  I  prepare  my  lectures  easily,  and 
often  have  five  whole  days  a  week  that  I  can  give  up  to 
the  laboratory.  I  am  often  scolded  by  Mme.  Pasteur,  but  I 
console  her  by  telling  her  that  I  shall  lead  her  to  fame." 

He  already  foresaw  the  greatness  of  his  work.  However 
he  dare  not  speak  of  it,  and  kept  his  secret,  save  with  the 

75 


THE  LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

confidante  who  was  now  a  collaborator,  ever  ready  to  act 
as  secretary,  watching  over  the  precious  health  of  which 
he  himself  took  no  account,  an  admirable  helpmeet,  to  whom 
might  be  applied  the  Roman  definition,  soda  rei  hummtœ 
atque  divince.  Never  did  life  shower  more  afifection  upon  a 
man.  Everything  at  that  time  smiled  upon  him.  Two  fair 
children  in  the  home,  great  security  in  his  work,  no 
enemies,  and  the  comfort  of  receiving  the  approval  and 
counsel  of  masters  who  inspired  him  with  a  feeling  of 
veneration. 

"  At  my  age,"  wrote  Biot  to  Pasteur,  '•  one  lives  only  in 
the  interest  one  takes  in  those  one  loves.  You  are  one  of 
the  small  number  who  can  provide  such  food  for  my  mind." 
And  alluding  in  that  same  letter  (December  22,  1851)  to 
four  reports  successively  approved  of  by  Balard,  Dumas, 
Regnault,  Chevreul,  Senarmont  and  Thenard  :  "  I  was  very 
happy  to  see,  in  those  successive  announcements  of  ideas 
of  so  new  and  so  far-reaching  a  nature,  that  you  have  said — 
and  that  we  have  made  you  say — nothing  that  should  now 
be  contradicted  or  objected  to  in  one  single  point.  I  still 
have  in  my  hands  the  pages  of  your  last  paper  concerning 
the  optical  study  of  malic  acid.  I  have  not  yet  returned 
them  to  you,  as  I  wish  to  extract  from  them  some  results 
that  I  shall  place  to  your  credit  in  a  paper  I  am  now 
writing." 

It  was  no  longer  Biot  and  Senarmont  only  who  were 
watching  the  growing  importance  of  Pasteur's  work.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  year  1852  the  physicist  Regnault 
thought  of  making  Pasteur  a  corresponding  member  of  the 
Institute.  Pasteur  was  still  under  thirty.  There  was  a 
vacancy  in  the  General  Physics  section,  why  not  offer  it  to 
him  ?  said  Regnault,  with  his  usual  kindliness.  Biot  shook 
his  head  :  "  It  is  to  the  Chemistry  section  that  he  ought  to 

76 


I 850- I 854 

belong.  '  '  And ,  wi  th  the  courage  of  sincere  affection,  he  wrote 
to  Pasteur,  "  Your  work  marks  your  place  in  chemistry  rather 
than  physics,  for  in  chemistry  you  are  in  the  front  rank  of 
inventors,  whilst  in  physics  you  have  applied  processes  al- 
ready known  rather  than  invented  new  ones.  Do  not  listen 
to  people,  who,  without  knowing  the  ground,  would  cause 
you  to  desire,  and  even  to  hastily  obtain,  a  distinction  which 
would  be  above  your  real  and  recognized  claims.  .  .  .  Be- 
sides, you  can  see  for  yourself  how  much  your  work  of  the 
last  four  years  has  raised  you  in  every  one's  estimation. 
And  that  place,  which  you  have  made  for  yourself  in  the 
general  esteem,  has  the  advantage  of  not  being  subject  to 
the  fluctuations  of  the  ballot.  Farewell,  dear  friend,  write 
to  me  when  you  have  time,  and  be  assured  that  my  interest 
in  hard  workers  is  about  the  only  thing  which  yet  makes 
me  wish  to  live.    Your  friend." 

Pasteur  gratefully  accepted  these  wise  counsels.  In  an 
excess  of  modesty,  he  wrote  to  Dumas  that  he  should  not 
apply  as  candidate  even  if  a  place  for  a  correspondent  were 
vacant  in  the  Chemistry  section.  "  Do  you  then  believe," 
answered  Dumas  with  a  vivacity  very  unlike  his  usual 
solemn  calmness,  "  do  you  believe  that  we  are  insensible  to 
the  glory  which  your  work  reflects  on  French  chemistry, 
and  on  the  Ecole  from  whence  you  come  ?  The  very  day 
I  entered  the  minisstry,  I  asked  for  the  Cross  ^  for  you.  I 
should  have  had  in  giving  it  to  you  myself  a  satisfaction 
which  you  cannot  conceive.  I  don't  know  whence  the 
delay  and  difficulty  arise.  But  what  I  do  know  is  that 
you  make  my  blood  boil  when  you  speak  in  your  letter  of 
the  necessity  of  leaving  a  free  place  in  chemistry  to  the 
men  you  mention,  one  or  two  excepted.  .  .  .  What  opinion 
have  you  then  of  our  judgment  ?  When  there  is  a  vacant 
^  Of  the  Legion  of  Honour. 
77 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

place,  you  shall  be  presented,  supported  and  elected.  It  is 
a  question  of  justice  and  of  the  great  interests  of  science  : 
we  shall  make  them  prevail.  .  .  .  When  the  day  comes, 
there  will  be  means  found  to  do  what  is  required  for  the 
interests  of  science,  of  which  you  are  one  of  the  firmest 
pillars,  and  one  of  the  most  glorious  hopes.  Heartily 
yours." 

"  My  dear  father,"  wrote  Pasteur,  sending  his  father  a 
copy  of  this  letter,  "  I  hope  you  will  be  proud  of  M.  Dumas' 
letter.  It  surprised  me  very  much.  I  did  not  believe  that 
my  work  deserved  such  a  splendid  testimony,  though  I 
recognize  its  great  importance." 

Thus  were  associated  in  Pasteur  the  full  consciousness  of 
his  great  mental  power  with  an  extreme  ingenuousness. 
Instead  of  the  pride  and  egotism  provoked,  almost  excus- 
ably, in  so  many  superior  men  by  excessive  strength,  his 
character  presented  the  noblest  delicacy. 

Another  arrangement  occurred  to  Regnault:  that  he 
himself  should  accept  the  direction  of  the  Sèvres  Manu- 
factory, and  give  up  to  Pasteur  his  professorship  at  the 
Ecole  Polytechnique.  Others  suggested  that  Pasteur  should 
become  chief  lecturer  at  the  Ecole  Normale.  Rumours  of 
these  possibilities  reached  Strasburg,  but  Pasteur's  thoughts 
were  otherwise  absorbed.  He  was  concerned  with  the 
manner  in  which  he  could  modify  the  crystalline  forms  of 
certain  substances  which,  though  optically  active,  did  not 
at  the  first  view  present  the  hemihedral  character,  and 
with  the  possibility  of  provoking  the  significant  faces  by 
varying  the  nature  of  the  dissolving  agents.  Biot  was 
anxious  that  he  should  not  be  disturbed  in  these  ingenious 
researches,  and  advised  him  to  remain  at  Strasburg  in 
terms  as  vigorous  as  any  of  his  previous  advice.  "  As  to 
the  accidents  which  come  from  or  depend  on  men's  caprice, 

78 


I 850-1854 

be  strong-minded  enough  to  disdain  them  yet  awhile.  Do 
not  trouble  about  anything,  but  pursue  indefatigably  your 
great  career.  You  will  be  rewarded  in  the  end,  the  more 
certainly  and  unquestionably  that  you  will  have  deserved 
it  more  fully.  The  time  is  not  far  when  those  who  can 
serve  you  efficiently  will  feel  as  much  pride  in  doing 
so  as  shame  and  embarrassment  in  not  having  done  so 
already." 

When  Pasteur  came  to  Paris  in  August,  for  what  he 
might  have  called  his  annual  pilgrimage,  Biot  had  reserved 
for  him  a  most  agreeable  surprise.  Mitscherlich  was  in 
Paris,  where  he  had  come,  accompanied  by  another  German 
crystallographer,  G.  Rose,  to  thank  the  Académie  for  ap- 
pointing him  a  foreign  Associate.  They  both  expressed  a 
desire  to  see  Pasteur,  who  was  staying  in  a  hotel  in  the  Rue 
de  Tournon.  Biot,  starting  for  his  daily  walk  round  the 
Luxembourg  Garden,  left  this  note:  "Please  come  to  my 
house  to-morrow  at  8  a.m.,  if  possible  with  your  products. 
M.  Mitscherlich  and  M.  Rose  are  coming  at  9  to  see  them." 
The  interview  was  lengthy  and  cordial.  In  a  letter  to  his 
father — who  now  knew  a  great  deal  about  crystals  and 
their  forms,  thanks  to  Pasteur's  lucid  explanations — we 
find  these  words.  "  I  spent  two  and  a  half  hours  with  them 
on  Sunday  at  the  Collège  de  France,  showing  them  my 
crystals.  They  were  much  pleased,  and  highly  praised  my 
work.  I  dined  with  them  on  Tuesday  at  M.  Thenard's; 
you  will  like  to  see  the  names  of  the  guests:  Messrs. 
Mitscherlich,  Rose,  Dumas,  Chevreul,  Regnault,  Pelouze, 
Péligot,  C.  Prévost,  and  Bussy.  You  see  I  was  the  only 
outsider,  they  are  all  members  of  the  Académie.  .  .  .  But 
the  chief  advantage  of  my  meeting  these  gentlemen  is  that 
I  have  heard  from  them  the  important  fact  that  there  is  a 
manufacturer  in  Germany  who  again  produces  some  ra- 

79 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

cemic  acid.  I  intend  to  go  and  see  him  and  his  products, 
so  as  to  study  thoroughly  that  singular  substance." 

At  the  time  when  scientific  novels  were  in  fashion,  a 
whole  chapter  might  have  been  written  on  Pasteur  in 
search  of  that  acid.  In  order  to  understand  in  a  measure 
his  emotion  on  learning  that  a  manufacturer  in  Saxony 
possessed  this  mysterious  acid,  we  must  remember  that  the 
racemic  acid — produced  for  the  first  time  by  Kestner  at 
Thann  in  1820,  through  a  mere  accident  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  tartaric  acid — had  suddenly  ceased  to  appear,  in 
spite  of  all  efforts  to  obtain  it  again.  What  then  was  the 
origin  of  it  ? 

Mitscherlich  believed  that  the  tartars  employed  by  this 
Saxony  manufacturer  came  from  Trieste.  "  I  shall  go  to 
Trieste,"  said  Pasteur  ;  "  I  shall  go  to  the  end  of  the  world. 
I  must  discover  the  source  of  racemic  acid,  I  must  follow 
up  the  tartars  to  their  origin."  Was  the  acid  existent 
in  crude  tartars,  such  as  Kestner  received  in  1820  from 
Naples,  Sicily,  or  Oporto  ?  This  was  all  the  more  probable 
from  the  fact  that  from  the  day  when  Kestner  began  to  use 
semi-refined  tartars  he  had  no  longer  found  any  racemic 
acid.  Should  one  conclude  that  it  remained  stored  up  in 
the  mother-liquor? 

With  a  feverish  impetuosity  that  nothing  could  soothe, 
Pasteur  begged  Biot  and  Dumas  to  obtain  for  him  a  mission 
from  the  Ministry  or  the  Académie.  Exasperated  by  red 
tape  delays,  he  was  on  the  point  of  writing  directly  to  the 
President  of  the  Republic.  ^'It  is  a  question,"  he  said, 
"that  France  should  make  it  a  point  of  honour  to  solve 
through  one  of  her  children.  '  '  Biot  endeavoured  to  moderate 
this  excessive  impatience.  "It  is  not  necessary  to  set  the 
Government  in  motion  for  this,"  he  said,  a  little  quizzically. 
"The  Academy,  when  informed  of  your  motives  might  very 

80 


I850-I854 

well  contribute  a  few  thousand  francs  towards  researches 
on  the  racemic  acid."  But  when  Mitscherlich  gave  Pasteur 
a  letter  of  recommendation  to  the  Saxony  manufacturer, 
whose  name  was  Fikentscher  and  who  lived  near  Leipzig, 
Pasteur  could  contain  himself  no  longer,  and  went  off, 
waiting  for  nothing  and  listening  to  no  one.  His  travelling 
impressions  were  of  a  peculiar  nature.  We  will  extract 
passages  from  a  sort  of  diary  addressed  to  Madame  Pasteur 
so  that  she  might  share  the  emotions  of  this  pursuit.  He 
starts  his  campaign  on  the  12th  September.  "I  do  not 
stop  at  Leipzig,  but  go  on  to  Zwischau,  and  then  to  M. 
Fikentscher.  I  leave  him  at  nightfall  and  go  back  to  him 
the  next  morning  very  early.  I  have  spent  all  to-day, 
Sunday,  with  him.  M.  Fikentscher  is  a  very  clever  man,  and 
he  has  shown  me  his  whole  manufactory  in  every  detail, 
keeping  no  secrets  from  me.  .  .  .  His  factory  is  most 
prosperous.  It  comprises  a  group  of  houses  which,  from  a 
distance,  and  situated  on  a  height  as  they  are,  look  almost 
like  a  little  village.  It  is  surrounded  by  20  hectares  ^  of 
well  cultivated  ground.  All  this  is  the  result  of  a  few  years' 
work.  As  to  the  question,  here  is  a  little  information  that 
you  will  keep  strictly  to  yourself  for  the  present.  M. 
Fikentscher  obtained  racemic  acid  for  the  first  time  about 
twenty-two  years  ago.  He  prepared  at  that  time  rather  a 
large  quantity.  Since  then  only  a  very  small  amount  has 
been  formed  in  the  process  of  manufacture  and  he  has  not 
troubled  to  preserve  it.  When  he  used  to  obtain  most,  his 
tartars  came  from  Trieste.  This  confirms,  though  not  in 
every  point,  what  I  had  heard  from  M.  Mitscherlich.  Any- 
how, here  is  my  plan  :  Having  no  laboratory  at  Zwischau, 
I  have  just  returned  to  Leipzig  with  two  kinds  of  tartars 
that  M.  Fikentscher  now  uses,  some  of  which  come  from 
'  Hectare  ;  French  measure  of  surface,  about  2^  acres.  [Trans.] 
VOL.   I.  81  G 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Austria,  and  some  from  Italy.  M.  Fikentscher  has  as- 
sured me  that  I  should  be  very  well  received  here  by 
divers  professors,  who  know  my  name  very  well,  he  says. 
To-morrow  Monday  morning,  I  will  go  to  the  Université 
and  set  up  in  some  laboratory  or  other.  I  think  that  in  five 
or  six  days  I  shall  have  finished  my  examination  of  these 
tartars.  Then  I  shall  start  for  Vienna,  where  I  shall  stay 
two  or  three  days  and  rapidly  study  Hungarian  tartars.  .  .  . 
Finally  I  shall  go  to  Trieste  where  I  shall  find  tartars  of 
divers  countries,  notably  those  of  the  Levant,  and  those  of 
the  neighbourhood  of  Trieste  itself.  On  arriving  here  at 
M.  Fikentscher's  I  have  unfortunately  discovered  a  very 
regrettable  circumstance.  It  is  that  the  tartars  he  uses 
have  already  been  through  one  process  in  the  country  from 
which  they  are  exported,  and  this  process  is  such  that  it 
evidently  eliminates  and  loses  the  greater  part  of  the 
racemic  acid.  At  least  I  think  so.  I  must  therefore  go  to 
the  place  itself.  If  I  had  enough  money  I  should  go  on  to 
Italy  ;  but  that  is  impossible,  it  will  be  for  next  year.  I 
shall  give  ten  years  to  it  if  necessary  ;  but  it  will  not  be, 
and  I  am  sure  that  in  my  very  next  letter  I  shall  be  able  to 
tell  you  that  I  have  some  good  results.  For  instance,  I  am 
almost  sure  to  find  a  prompt  means  of  testing  tartars  from 
the  point  of  view  of  racemic  acid.  That  is  a  point  ot 
primary  importance  for  my  work.  I  want  to  go  quickly 
through  examining  all  these  different  tartars  ;  that  will  be 
my  first  study.  .  .  .  M.  Fikentscher  will  take  nothing  for 
his  products.  It  is  true  that  I  have  given  him  hints  and 
some  of  my  own  enthusiasm.  He  wants  to  prepare  for 
commercial  purposes  some  left  tartaric  acid,  and  I  have 
given  him  all  the  necessary  crystallographic  indications. 
I  have  no  doubt  he  will  succeed." 

Leipzig^    Wednesday^   September   15,    1852.      "My   dear 

82 


I850-I854 

Marie,  I  do  not  want  to  wait  until  I  have  the  results  of  my 
researches  before  writing  to  you  again.  And  yet  I  have 
nothing  to  tell  you,  for  I  have  not  left  the  laboratory  for 
three  days,  and  I  know  nothing  of  Leipzig  but  the  street 
which  goes  from  the  Hotel  de  Bavière  to  the  Université.  I 
come  home  at  dusk,  dine,  and  go  to  bed.  I  have  only 
received,  in  M.  Erdmann's  study,  the  visit  of  Professor 
Hankel,  professor  of  physics  of  the  Leipzig  Université,  who 
has  translated  all  my  treatises  in  a  German  paper  edited 
by  M.  Erdmann.  He  has  also  studied  hemihedral  crystals, 
and  I  enjoyed  talking  with  him.  I  shall  also  soon  meet  the 
professor  of  mineralogy,  M.  Naumann. 

"  To-morrow  only  shall  I  have  a  first  result  concerning 
racemic  acid.  I  shall  stay  about  ten  days  longer  in 
Leipzig.  It  is  more  than  I  told  you,  and  the  reason  lies  in 
rather  a  happy  circumstance.  M.  Fikentscher  has  kindly 
written  to  me  and  to  a  firm  in  Leipzig,  and  I  heard  yester- 
day from  the  head  of  that  firm  that,  very  likely,  they  can 
get  me  to-morrow  some  tartars  absolutely  crude  and  of  the 
same  origin  as  M.  Fikentscher's.  The  same  gentleman  has 
given  me  some  information  about  a  factory  at  Venice,  and 
will  give  me  a  letter  of  recommendation  to  a  firm  in  that 
city,  also  for  Trieste.  In  this  way  the  journey  I  proposed 
to  make  in  that  town  will  not  simply  be  a  pleasure  trip. 
...  I  shall  write  to  M.  Biot  as  soon  as  I  have  important 
results.  To-day  has  been  a  good  day,  and  in  about  three  or 
four  more  you  will  no  doubt  receive  a  satisfactory  letter." 

Leipzig,  September  18,  1852.  "  My  dear  Marie,  the  very 
question  which  has  brought  me  here  is  surrounded  with 
very  great  difficulties.  ...  I  have  only  studied  one  tartar 
thoroughly  since  I  have  been  here  ;  it  comes  from  Naples 
and  has  been  refined  once.  It  contains  racemic  acid,  but  in 
such  infinitesimal  proportions  that  it  can  only  be  detected 

83 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

by  the  most  delicate  process.  It  is  only  by  manufacture  on 
a  very  large  scale  that  a  certain  quantity  could  be  prepared. 
But  I  must  tell  you  that  the  first  operation  undergone  by 
this  tartar  must  have  deprived  it  almost  entirely  of  racemic 
acid.  Fortunately  M.  Fikentscher  is  a  most  enlightened 
man,  he  perfectly  understands  the  importance  of  this  acid 
and  he  is  prepared  to  follow  most  minutely  the  indications 
that  I  shall  give  him  in  order  to  obtain  this  singular  sub- 
tance  in  quantities  such  that  it  can  again  be  easily  turned 
into  commercial  use.  I  can  already  conceive  the  history 
of  this  product.  M.  Kestner  must  have  had  at  his  disposal 
in  1820  some  Neapolitan  tartars,  as  indeed  he  said  he  had, 
and  he  must  have  operated  on  crude  tartar.  That  is  the 
whole  secret.  ...  But  is  it  certain  that  almost  the  whole 
of  the  acid  is  lost  in  the  first  manufacture  undergone  by 
tartar  ?  I  believe  it  is.  But  it  must  be  proved.  There  are 
at  Trieste  and  at  Venice  two  tartar  refineries  of  which  I 
have  the  addresses.  I  also  have  letters  of  introduction.  I 
shall  examine  there  (if  I  find  a  laboratory)  the  residual 
products,  and  I  shall  make  minute  inquiries  respecting  the 
places  the  tartars  used  in  those  two  cities  come  from. 
Finally,  I  shall  procure  a  few  kilogrammes,  which  I  shall 
carefully  study  when  I  get  back  to  France.  ..." 

Freiberg  y  September  23,  1852.  "I  arrived  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  2 1  St  at  Dresden,  and  I  had  to  wait  until 
eleven  the  next  morning  to  have  my  passport  viséy  so  I 
could  not  start  for  Freiberg  before  seven  p.m.  I  took 
advantage  of  that  day  to  visit  the  capital  of  Saxony,  and  I 
can  assure  you  that  I  saw  some  admirable  things.  There 
is  a  most  beautiful  museum  containing  pictures  by  the  first 
masters  of  every  school.  I  spent  over  four  hours  in  the 
galleries,  noting  on  my  catalogue  the  pictures  I  most 
enjoyed.    Those  I  liked  I  marked  with  a  cross  ;  but  I  soon 

84 


I 850-1854 

put  two,  three  crosses,  according  to   the   degree  of  my 
enthusiasm.    I  even  went  as  far  as  four. 

"I  also  visited  what  they  call  the  green  vault  room, 
an  absolutely  unique  collection  of  works  of  art,  gems, 
jewels  .  .  .  then  some  churches,  avenues,  admirable  bridges 
across  the  Elbe.  ... 

"I  then  started  for  Freiberg  at  7  .  .  .  My  love  of 
crystals  took  me  first  to  the  learned  Professor  of  miner- 
alogy, Breithaupt,  who  received  me  as  one  would  not  be 
received  in  France.  After  a  short  colloquy,  he  passed  into 
the  next  room,  came  back  in  a  black  tail-coat  with  three 
little  decorations  in  his  button  hole,  and  told  me  he  would 
first  present  me  to  the  Baron  von  Beust,  Superintendent 
of  Factories,  so  as  to  obtain  a  permit  to  visit  the  latter.  .  .  . 
Then  he  took  me  for  a  walk,  talking  crystals  the  whole 
time.  .  .  ." 

PS. — "  Mind  you  tell  M.  Biot  how  I  was  received;  it  will 
please  him." 

Vienna,  September  27,  1852.  "  Yesterday,  Monday  morn- 
ing, I  set  out  to  call  upon  several  people.  Unfortunately, 
I  hear  that  Professor  Schrotter  is  at  Wiesbaden,  at  a 
scientific  congress,  as  well  as  M.  Seybel,  a  manufacturer 
of  tartaric  acid.  M.  Miller,  a  merchant  for  whom  I  had 
a  letter  of  recommendation,  was  kind  enough  to  ask 
M.  Seybel's  business  manager  for  permission  for  me  to 
visit  the  factory  in  his  absence.  He  refused,  saying  he 
was  not  authorized.  But  I  did  not  give  in  ;  I  asked  for  the 
addresses  of  Viennese  professors,  and  I  fortunately  came 
upon  that  of  a  very  well  known  scientific  man,  M.  Redten- 
bacher,  who  has  been  kind  to  me  beyond  all  description. 
At  6  a.m.  he  came  to  my  hotel,  and  we  took  the  train 
at  7  for  the  Seybel  manufactory,  which  is  at  a  little  dis- 
tance from  Vienna.    We  were  received  by  the  chemist  of 

85 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

the  factory,  who  made  not  the  slightest  difficulty  in  intro- 
ducing us  into  the  sanctuary,  and  after  many  questions  we 
ended  by  being  convinced  that  the  famous  racemic  acid 
was  seen  there  last  winter.  ...  I  reserve  for  later  many 
details  of  great  interest,  for  here  they  have  operated  for 
years  on  crude  tartar.    I  came  away  very  happy. 

"There  is  another  factory  of  tartaric  acid  in  Vienna.  We 
go  there  ;  I  repeat  through  M.  Redtenbacher  my  string  of 
questions.  They  have  seen  nothing.  I  ask  to  see  their 
products,  and  I  come  upon  a  barrel  full  of  tartaric  acid 
crystals,  on  the  surface  of  which  I  think  I  perceive  the  sub- 
stance, A  first  test  made  with  dirty  old  glasses  then  and 
there  confirms  my  doubts  ;  they  become  a  certainty  a  few 
moments  later  at  M.  Redtenbacher's  laboratory.  We  dine 
together  ;  then  we  go  back  to  the  factory,  where  we  learn, 
miraculous  to  relate,  that  they  are  just  now  embarrassed 
in  their  manufacturing  process,  and,  almost  certainly,  the 
product  which  hinders  them — though  it  is  in  a  very  small 
quantity,  and  they  take  it  for  sulphate  of  potash — is  no 
other  than  racemic  acid.  I  wish  I  could  give  you  more 
details  of  this  eventful  day.  I  was  to  have  left  Vienna  to- 
day, but,  as  you  will  understand,  I  shall  stay  until  I  have 
unravelled  this  question.  I  have  already  in  the  laboratory 
three  kinds  of  products  from  the  factory.  To-morrow 
night,  or  the  day  after,  I  shall  know  what  to  think.  .  .  . 

"You  remember  what  I  used  to  say  to  you  and  to 
M.  Dumas,  that  almost  certainly  the  first  operation  which 
tartar  goes  through  in  certain  factories  causes  it  to  lose 
all  or  nearly  all  its  racemic  acid.  Well,  in  the  two 
Viennese  factories,  it  is  only  two  years  since  they  began 
to  operate  on  crude  tartar,  and  it  is  only  two  years  since 
they  first  saw  the  supposed  sulphate  of  potash,  the  sup- 
posed sulphate  of  magnesia.    For,  at  M.  Seybel's,  they  had 

86 


I850-T854 

taken  for  sulphate  of  magnesia  the  little  crystals  of  racemic 
acid. 

"  Shortly,  this  is  as  far  as  I  have  come — I  spare  you 
many  details: — 

1.  "  The  Naples  tartar  contains  racemic  acid. 

2.  "The  Austrian  tartar  (neighbourhood  of  Vienna)  con- 
tains racemic  acid. 

3.  "The  tartars  of  Hungary,  Croatia,  Carniola  contain 
racemic  acid. 

4.  "The  tartar  of  Naples  contains  notably  more  than  the 
latter,  for  it  presents  racemic  acid  even  after  one  refining 
process,  whilst  that  from  Austria  and  Hungary  only  pre- 
sents it  when  in  the  crude  state. 

"  I  believe  it  now  to  be  extremely  probable  that  I  shall  find 
some  racemic  acid  in  French  tartars,  but  in  very  small 
quantities  ;  and  if  it  is  not  detected  it  is  because  all  the 
circumstances  of  the  manufacture  of  tartaric  acid  are  un- 
known or  unappreciated,  or  because  some  little  precaution 
is  neglected  that  would  preserve  it  or  make  it  visible. 

"  You  see,  dear  Marie,  how  useful  was  my  journey." 

"  Vienna,  September  30,  1852.  I  am  not  going  to  Trieste; 
I  shall  start  for  Prague  this  evening." 

^^  Prague  y  October  i,  1852.  Here  is  a  startling  piece  of 
news.  I  arrive  in  Prague  ;  I  settle  down  in  the  Hôtel 
d'Angleterre,  have  lunch,  and  call  on  M.  Rochleder,  Pro- 
fessor of  chemistry,  so  that  he  may  introduce  me  to  the 
\manufacturer.  I  go  to  the  chemist  of  the  factory.  Dr.  Rass- 
jnann,  for  whom  I  had  a  letter  from  M.  Redtenbacher,  his 
former  master.  That  letter  contained  all  the  questions 
that  I  usually  make  to  the  manufacturers  of  tartaric  acid. 

"Dr.  Rassmann  hardly  took  time  to  read  the  letter;  he 
saw  what  it  dealt  with,  and  said  to  me:  *I  have  long 
obtained  racemic  acid.    The  Paris  Pharmaceutical  Society 

87 


THE   LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

offered  a  prize  for  whoever  manufactured  it.  It  is  a  pro- 
duct of  manufacture  ;  I  obtain  it  with  the  assistance  of 
tartaric  acid.'  I  took  the  chemist's  hand  affectionately, 
and  made  him  repeat  what  he  had  said.  Then  I  added: 
'  You  have  made  one  of  the  greatest  discoveries  that  it 
is  possible  to  make  in  chemistry.  Perhaps  you  do  not 
realize  as  I  do  the  full  importance  of  it.  But  allow  me 
to  tell  you  that,  with  my  ideas,  I  look  upon  that  discovery 
as  impossible.  I  do  not  ask  for  your  secret  ;  I  shall  await 
the  publication  of  it  with  the  greatest  impatience.  So  that 
is  really  true?  You  take  a  kilogramme  of  pure  tartaric 
acid,  and  with  that  you  make  racemic  acid  ?  ' 

"'Yes,'  he  said;  'but  it  is  still'  .  .  .  and  as  he  had 
some  difficulty  in  expressing  himself,  I  said  :  '  It  is  still 
surrounded  with  great  difficulties  ?  ' 

"  '  Yes,  monsieur.' 

"Great  heavens!  what  a  discovery!  if  he  had  really 
done  what  he  says!  But  no;  it  is  impossible.  There  is 
an  abyss  to  cross,  and  chemistry  is  yet  too  young." 

Second  letter^  same  date.  "  M.  Rassmann  is  mistaken.  .  .  . 
He  has  never  obtained  racemic  acid  with  pure  tartaric 
acid.  He  does  what  M.  Fikentscher  and  the  Viennese 
manufacturers  do,  with  sHght  differences,  which  confirm 
the  general  opinion  I  expressed  in  my  letter  to  M.  Dumas 
a  few  days  ago." 

That  letter,  and  also  another  addressed  to  Biot,  indicated 
that  racemic  acid  was  formed  in  varying  quantities  in  the 
mother-liquor,  which  remained  after  the  purification  of 
crude  tartars. 

"  I  can  at  last,"  Pasteur  wrote  from  Leipzig  to  his  wife, 
"  turn  my  steps  again  towards  France.  I  want  it  ;  I  am 
very  weary." 

In  an  account  of  this  journey  in  a  newspaper  called 

88 


I850-I854 

La  Vérité  there  was  this  sentence,  which  amused  everybody, 
Pasteur  included  :  "  Never  was  treasure  sought,  never 
adored  beauty  pursued  over  hill  and  vale  with  greater 
ardour." 

But  the  hero  of  scientific  adventures  was  not  satisfied. 
He  had  foreseen  by  the  examination  of  crystalline  forms, 
the  correlation  between  hemihedral  dissymmetry  and  rota- 
tory power  ;  this  was,  to  his  mind,  a  happy  foresight.  He 
had  afterwards  succeeded  in  separating  the  racemic  acid, 
inactive  on  polarized  light,  into  two  acids,  left  and  right, 
endowed  with  equal  but  contrary  rotatory  powers;  this 
was  a  discovery  deservedly  qualified  as  memorable  by  good 
judges  in  those  matters.  Now  he  had  indicated  the  mother- 
liquor  as  the  source  of  racemic  acid,  and  this  was  a  precious 
observation  that  Kestner,  who  was  specially  interested  in 
the  question,  confirmed  in  a  letter  to  the  Académie  des 
Sciences  (December,  1852),  sending  at  the  same  time  three 
large  phials  of  racemic  acid,  one  of  which,  made  of  thin 
glass,  broke  in  Blot's  hands.  But  a  great  advance,  appar- 
ently unrealizable,  remained  yet  to  be  accomplished.  Could 
not  racemic  acid  be  produced  by  the  aid  of  tartaric  acid  ? 

Pasteur  himself,  as  he  told  the  optimist  Rassmann,  did 
not  believe  such  a  transformation  possible.  But,  by  dint  of 
ingenious  patience,  of  trials,  of  efforts  of  all  sorts,  he 
fancied  he  was  nearing  the  goal.  He  wrote  to  his  father  : 
"  I  am  thinking  of  one  thing  only,  of  the  hope  of  a  brilliant 
discovery  which  seems  not  very  far.  But  the  result  I 
foresee  is  so  extraordinary  that  I  dare  not  believe  it."  He 
told  Biot  and  Senarmont  of  this  hope.  Both  seemed  to 
doubt.  "  I  advise  you,"  wrote  Senarmont,  "  not  to  speak 
until  you  can  say  :  '  I  obtain  racemic  acid  artificially  with 
some  tartaric  acid,  of  which  I  have  myself  verified  the 
purity;  the  artificial  acid,  like  the  natural,  divides  itself 

89 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

into  equal  equivalents  of  left  and  right  tartaric  acids,  and 
those  acids  have  the  forms,  the  optical  properties,  all  the 
chemical  properties  of  those  obtained  from  the  natural 
acid.'  Do  not  believe  that  I  want  to  worry  you;  the 
scruples  I  have  for  you  I  should  have  for  myself;  it  is 
well  to  be  doubly  sure  when  dealing  with  such  a  fact." 
But  with  Biot,  Senarmont  was  less  reserved;  he  believed 
the  thing  done.  He  said  so  to  Biot,  who,  prudent  and 
cautious,  still  desirous  of  warning  Pasteur,  wrote  to  him 
on  May  27,  1853,  speaking  of  Senarmont  :  "  The  affection 
with  which  your  work,  your  perseverance  and  your  moral 
character  have  inspired  him  makes  him  desire  impossible 
prodigies  for  you.  My  friendship  for  you  is  less  hastily 
hopeful  and  harder  to  convince.  However,  enjoy  his 
friendship  fully,  and  be  as  unreserved  with  him  as  you  are 
with  me.  You  can  do  so  in  full  security  ;  I  do  not  know 
a  stronger  character  than  his.  I  have  said  and  repeated 
to  him  how  happy  I  am  to  see  the  affection  he  bears  you. 
For  there  will  be  at  least  one  man  who  will  love  you  and 
understand  you  when  I  am  gone.  Farewell  ;  enough 
sermons  for  to-day  ;  a  man  must  be  as  I  am,  in  his  eightieth 
year,  to  write  such  long  homilies.  Fortunately  you  are 
accustomed  to  mine,  and  do  not  mind  them." 

At  last,  on  the  first  of  June,  here  is  the  letter  announcing 
the  great  fact  :  "  My  dear  father,  I  have  just  sent  out 
the  following  telegram:  Monsieur  Biot,  Collège  de  France, 
Paris.  I  transform  tartaric  acid  into  racemic  acid  ;  please 
inform  MM.  Dumas  and  Senarmont.  Here  is  at  last  that 
racemic  acid  (which  I  went  to  seek  at  Vienna)  artificially 
obtained  through  tartaric  acid.  I  long  believed  that  that 
transformation  was  impossible.  This  discovery  will  have 
incalculable  consequences." 

"  I  congratulate  you,"  answered  Biot  on  the  second  of 

90 


I850-I854 

June.  Your  discovery  is  now  complete.  M.  de  Senarmont 
will  be  as  delighted  as  I  am.  Please  congratulate  also 
Mme.  Pasteur  from  me  ;  she  must  be  as  pleased  as  you." 
It  was  by  maintaining  tartrate  of  cinchonin  at  a  high 
temperature  for  several  hours  that  Pasteur  had  succeeded 
in  transforming  tartaric  acid  into  racemic  acid.  Without 
entering  here  into  technical  details  (which  are  to  be  found 
in  a  report  of  the  Paris  Pharmaceutical  Society,  concerning 
the  prize  accorded  to  Pasteur  for  the  artificial  production  of 
racemic  acid)  it  may  be  added  that  he  had  also  produced  the 
neutral  tartaric  acid — that  is  :  with  no  action  on  polarized 
light — which  appeared  at  the  expense  of  racemic  acid 
already  formed.  There  were  henceforth  four  different 
tartaric  acids  : — (i)  the  right  or  dextro-tartaric  acid  ;  (2)  the 
left  or  Igevo-tartaric  acid  ;  (3)  the  combination  of  the  right 
and  the  left  or  racemic  acid  ;  and  (4)  the  meso-tartaric  acid, 
optically  inactive. 

The  reports  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences  also  contain 
accounts  of  occasional  discoveries,  of  researches  of  all 
kmds  accessory  to  the  history  of  racemic  acid.  Thus 
aspartic  acid  had  caused  Pasteur  to  make  a  sudden  journey 
from  Strasburg  to  Vendôme.  A  chemist  named  Dessaignes 
— who  was  municipal  receiver  of  that  town,  and  who  found 
time  through  sheer  love  of  science  for  researches  on  the 
constitution  of  divers  substances — had  announced  a  fact 
which  Pasteur  wished  to  verify;  it  turned  out  to  be  in- 
accurate. 

One  whole  sitting  of  the  Académie,  the  third  of  January, 
1853»  was  given  up  to  Pasteur's  name  and  growing  achieve- 
ments. 

After  all  this  Pasteur  came  back  to  Arbois  with  the  red 
ribbon  of  the  Legion  of  Honour.  He  had  not  won  it  in  the 
same  way  as  his  father  had,  but  he  deserved  it  as  fully. 

91 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Joseph  Pasteur,  delighting  in  his  illustrious  son,  wrote 
efifusively  to  Biot  ;  indeed  the  old  scientist  had  had  his  share 
in  this  act  of  justice.  Biot  answered  in  the  following  letter, 
which  is  a  further  revelation  of  his  high  and  independent 
ideal  of  a  scientific  career. 

"  Monsieur,  your  good  heart  makes  out  my  share  to  be 
greater  than  it  is.  The  splendid  discoveries  made  by  your 
worthy  and  excellent  son,  his  devotion  to  science,  his  inde- 
fatigable perseverance,  the  conscientious  care  with  which 
he  fulfils  the  duties  of  his  situation,  all  this  had  made  his 
position  such  that  there  was  no  need  to  solicit  for  him  what 
he  had  so  long  deserved.  But  one  might  boldly  point  out 
that  it  would  be  a  real  loss  to  the  Order  if  he  were  not 
promptly  included  within  its  ranks.  That  is  what  I  did, 
and  I  am  very  glad  to  see  that  the  too  long  delay  is  now  at 
an  end.  I  wished  for  this  all  the  more  as  I  knew  of  your 
aflectionate  desire  that  this  act  of  justice  should  be  done. 
Allow  me  to  add,  however,  that  in  our  profession  our  real 
distinction  depends  on  us  alone,  fortunately,  and  not  on  the 
favour  or  indifference  of  a  minister.  In  the  position  that 
your  son  has  acquired,  his  reputation  will  grow  with  his 
work,  no  other  help  being  needed  ;  and  the  esteem  he 
already  enjoys,  and  which  will  grow  day  by  day,  will  be 
accorded  to  him,  without  gainsaying  or  appeal,  by  the 
Grand  Jury  of  scientists  of  all  nations — an  absolutely  just 
tribunal,  the  only  one  we  recognize. 

"  Allow  me  to  add  to  my  congratulations  the  expression  of 
the  esteem  and  cordial  affection  with  which  you  have  in- 
spired me." 

On  his  return  to  Strasburg  Pasteur  went  to  live  in  a 
house  in  the  Rue  des  Couples,  which  suited  him  as  being 
near  the  Académie  and  his  laboratory;  it  also  had  a  garden 
where  his  children  could  play.    He  was  full  of  projects,  and 

92 


I850-I854 

what  he  called  the  "  spirit  of  invention  "  daily  suggested 
some  new  undertaking.  The  neighbourhood  of  Germany, 
at  that  time  a  veritable  hive  of  busy  bees,  was  a  fertile 
stimulant  to  the  French  Faculty  at  Strasburg. 

But  material  means  were  lacking.  When  Pasteur  re- 
ceived the  prize  of  1,500  francs  given  him  by  the  Pharma- 
ceutical Society,  he  gave  up  half  of  it  to  buying  instruments 
which  the  Strasburg  laboratory  was  too  poor  to  afford. 
The  resources  then  placed  by  the  State  at  his  disposal  by 
way  of  contribution  to  the  expenses  of  a  chemistry  class 
only  consisted  of  1,200  francs  under  the  heading  "class  ex- 
penses." Pasteur  had  to  pay  the  wages  of  his  laboratory 
attendant  out  of  it.  Now  that  he  was  better  provided, 
thanks  to  his  prize,  he  renewed  his  studies  on  crystals. 

Taking  up  an  octahedral  crystal,  he  broke  off  a  piece 
of  it,  then  replaced  it  in  its  mother-liquor.  Whilst  the 
crystal  was  growing  larger  in  every  direction  by  a  deposit 
of  crystalline  particles,  a  very  active  formation  was  taking 
place  on  the  mutilated  part  ;  after  a  few  hours  the  crystal 
had  again  assumed  its  original  shape.  The  healing  up  of 
wounds,  said  Pasteur,  might  be  compared  to  that  physical 
phenomenon.  Claude  Bernard,  much  struck  later  on  by 
these  experiments  of  Pasteur's  and  recalling  them  with 
much  praise,  said  in  his  turn — 

"  These  reconstituting  phenomena  of  crystalline  re- 
dintegration afford  a  complete  comparison  with  those 
presented  by  living  beings  in  the  case  of  a  wound  more  or 
less  deep.  In  the  crystal,  as  in  the  animal,  the  damaged 
part  heals,  gradually  taking  back  its  original  shape,  and 
in  both  cases  the  reformation  of  tissues  is  far  more  active 
in  that  particular  part  than  under  ordinary  evolutive  con- 
ditions." 

Thus  those  two  great  minds  saw  affinities  hidden  under 

93 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

facts  apparently  far  apart.  Other  similarities  yet  more  un- 
expected carried  Pasteur  away  towards  the  highest  region 
of  speculation.  He  spoke  with  enthusiasm  of  molecular 
dissymmetry  ;  he  saw  it  everywhere  in  the  universe.  These 
studies  in  dissymmetry  gave  birth  twenty  years  later  to 
a  new  science  arising  immediately  out  of  his  work,  viz. 
stereo-chemistry,  or  the  chemistry  of  space.  He  also  saw 
in  molecular  dissymmetry  the  influence  of  a  great  cosmic 
cause — 

"  The  universe,"  he  said  one  day,  "  is  a  dissymmetrical 
whole.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  life,  as  manifested  to  us, 
must  be  a  function  of  the  dissymmetry  of  the  universe  and 
of  the  consequences  it  produces.  The  universe  is  dissym- 
metrical ;  for,  if  the  whole  of  the  bodies  which  compose  the 
solar  system  were  placed  before  a  glass  moving  with  their 
individual  movements,  the  image  in  the  glass  could  not  be 
superposed  to  the  reality.  Even  the  movement  of  solar 
light  is  dissymmetrical.  A  luminous  ray  never  strikes  in 
a  straight  line  the  leaf  where  vegetable  life  creates  organic 
matter.  Terrestrial  magnetism,  the  opposition  which  exists 
between  the  north  and  south  poles  in  a  magnet,  that  offered 
us  by  the  two  electricities  positive  and  negative,  are  but 
resultants  from  dissymmetrical  actions  and  movements." 

"  Life,"  he  said  again,  "  is  dominated  by  dissymmetrical 
actions.  I  can  even  foresee  that  all  living  species  are 
primordially,  in  their  structure,  in  their  external  forms, 
functions  of  cosmic  dissymmetry." 

And  there  appeared  to  him  to  be  a  barrier  between 
mineral  or  artificial  products  and  products  formed  under 
the  influence  of  life.  But  he  did  not  look  upon  it  as  an 
impassable  one,  and  he  was  careful  to  say,  "  It  is  a  distinc- 
tion of  fact  and  not  of  absolute  principle."  As  nature 
elaborates  immediate  principles  of  life  by  means  of  dissym- 

94 


I 850- I 854 

metrical  forces,  he  wished  that  the  chemist  should  imitate 
nature,  and  that,  breaking  with  methods  founded  upon  the 
exclusive  use  of  symmetrical  forces,  he  should  bring  dis- 
symmetrical forces  to  bear  upon  the  production  of  chemical 
phenomena.  He  himself,  after  using  powerful  magnets  to 
attempt  to  introduce  a  manifestation  of  dissymmetry  into 
the  form  of  crystals,  had  had  a  strong  clockwork  movement 
constructed,  the  object  of  which  was  to  keep  a  plant  in  con- 
tinual rotatory  motion  first  in  one  direction  then  in  another. 
He  also  proposed  to  try  to  keep  a  plant  alive,  from  its 
germination,  under  the  influence  of  solar  rays  reversed  by 
means  of  a  mirror  directed  by  a  heliostat. 

But  Biot  wrote  to  him  :  "  I  should  like  to  be  able  to  turn 
you  from  the  attempts  you  wish  to  make  on  the  influence  of 
magnetism  on  vegetation.  M.  de  Senarmont  agrees  with 
me.  To  begin  with,  you  will  spend  a  great  deal  on  the 
purchase  of  instruments  with  the  use  of  which  you  are  not 
familiar,  and  of  which  the  success  is  very  doubtful.  They 
will  take  you  away  from  the  fruitful  course  of  experi- 
mental researches  which  you  have  followed  hitherto,  where 
there  is  yet  so  much  for  you  to  do,  and  will  lead  you  from 
the  certain  to  the  uncertain." 

"Louis  is  rather  too  preoccupied  with  his  experiments," 
wrote  Mme.  Pasteur  to  her  father-in-law;  "  you  know  that 
those  he  is  undertaking  this  year  will  give  us,  if  they  suc- 
ceed, a  Newton  or  a  Galileo." 

But  success  did  not  come.  "  My  studies  are  going  rather 
badly,"  wrote  Pasteur  in  his  turn  (December  30).  "I  am 
almost  afraid  of  failing  in  all  my  endeavours  this  year,  and 
of  having  no  important  achievement  to  record  by  the  end 
of  next  year.  I  am  still  hoping,  though  I  suppose  it  was 
rather  mad  to  undertake  what  I  have  undertaken." 

Whilst  he  was  thus  struggling,  an  experiment,  which 

95 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

for  others  would  have  been  a  mere  chemical  curiosity, 
interested  him  passionately.  Recalling  one  day  how  his 
first  researches  had  led  him  to  the  study  of  ferments  :  "  If  I 
place,"  he  said,  "  one  of  the  salts  of  racemic  acid,  paratar- 
trate  or  racemate  of  ammonia,  for  instance,  in  the  ordinary 
conditions  of  fermentation,  the  dextro-tartaric  acid  alone 
ferments,  the  other  remains  in  the  liquor.  I  may  say,  in 
passing,  that  this  is  the  best  means  of  preparing  Isevo- 
tartaric  acid.  Why  does  the  dextro-tartaric  acid  alone 
become  putrefied?  Because  the  ferments  of  that  fer- 
mentation feed  more  easily  on  the  right  than  on  the  left 
molecules." 

"  I  have  done  yet  more,"  he  said  much  later,  in  a  last 
lecture  to  the  Chemical  Society  of  Paris  ;  "  I  have  kept  alive 
some  little  seeds  of  pénicillium  glaucum — that  mucor 
which  is  to  be  found  everywhere — on  the  surface  of  ashes 
and  paratartaric  acid,  and  I  have  seen  the  laevo-tartaric 
acid  appear  ..." 

What  seemed  to  him  startling  in  those  two  experiments 
was  to  find  molecular  dissymmetry  appear  as  a  modifying 
agent  on  chemical  affinities  in  a  phenomenon  of  the  physio- 
logical order. 

By  an  interesting  coincidence  it  was  at  the  very  moment 
when  his  studies  were  bringing  him  towards  fermentations 
that  he  was  called  to  a  country  where  the  local  industry 
was  to  be  the  strongest  stimulant  to  his  new  researches. 


96 


CHAPTER  IV 
1855-1859 

IN  September,  1854,  he  was  made  Professor  and  Dean  of 
the  new  Faculté  des  Sciences  at  Lille.  "  I  need  not, 
Sir,"  wrote  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  M.  Fortoul, 
in  a  letter  where  private  feelings  were  mixed  with  official 
solemnity,  "  recall  to  your  mind  the  importance  which  is  at- 
tached to  the  success  of  this  new  Faculty  of  Science,  situated 
in  a  town  which  is  the  richest  centre  of  industrial,  activity 
in  the  north  of  France.  By  giving  you  the  direction  of  it, 
I  show  the  entire  confidence  which  I  have  placed  in  you. 
I  am  convinced  that  you  will  fulfil  the  hopes  which  I  have 
founded  upon  your  zeal." 

Built  at  the  expense  of  the  town,  the  Faculté  was 
situated  in  the  Rue  des  Fleurs.  In  the  opening  speech  which 
he  pronounced  on  December  7,  1854,  the  young  Dean 
expressed  his  enthusiasm  for  the  Imperial  decree  of 
August  22,  which  brought  two  happy  innovations  into 
the  Faculties  of  Science:  (i)  The  pupils  might,  for  a  small 
annual  sum,  enter  the  laboratory  and  practise  the  principal 
experiments  carried  out  before  them  at  the  classes  ;  and 
(2)  a  new  diploma  was  created.  After  two  years  of 
practical  and  theoretical  study  the  young  men  who  wished 
to  enter  an  industrial  career  could  obtain  this  special 
diploma  and  be  chosen  as  foremen  or  overseers.    Pasteur 

VOL.  I.  97  H 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

was  overjoyed  at  being  able  to  do  useful  work  in  that 
country  of  distilleries,  and  to  attract  large  audiences  to  the 
new  Faculty.  "Where  in  your  families  will  you  find,"  he 
said,  to  excite  indolent  minds — "  where  will  you  find  a  young 
man  whose  curiosity  and  interest  will  not  immediately  be 
awakened  when  you  put  into  his  hands  a  potato,  when  with 
that  potato  he  may  produce  sugar,  with  that  sugar  alcohol, 
with  that  alcohol  aether  and  vinegar  ?  Where  is  he  that 
will  not  be  happy  to  tell  his  family  in  the  evening  that  he 
has  just  been  working  out  an  electric  telegraph?  And, 
gentlemen,  be  convinced  of  this,  such  studies  are  seldom 
if  ever  forgotten.  It  is  somewhat  as  if  geography  were  to 
be  taught  by  travelling  ;  such  geography  is  remembered 
because  one  has  seen  the  places.  In  the  same  way  your 
sons  will  not  forget  what  the  air  we  breathe  contains  when 
they  have  once  analysed  it,  when  in  their  hands  and  under 
their  eyes  the  admirable  properties  of  its  elements  have 
been  resolved." 

After  stating  his  wish  to  be  directly  useful  to  these  sons 
of  manufacturers  and  to  put  his  laboratory  at  their  disposal, 
he  eloquently  upheld  the  rights  of  theory  in  teaching — 

"  Without  theory,  practice  is  but  routine  born  of  habit. 
Theory  alone  can  bring  forth  and  develop  the  spirit  of 
invention.  It  is  to  you  specially  that  it  will  belong  not  to 
share  the  opinion  of  those  narrow  minds  who  disdain  every- 
thing in  science  which  has  not  an  immediate  application. 
You  know  Franklin's  charming  saying  ?  He  was  witnessing 
the  first  demonstration  of  a  purely  scientific  discovery,  and 
people  round  him  said  :  '  But  what  is  the  use  of  it  ?  '  Franklin 
answered  them  :  '  What  is  the  use  of  a  new-born  child  ?  ' 
Yes,  gentlemen,  what  is  the  use  of  a  new-born  child  ?  And 
yet,  perhaps,  at  that  tender  age,  germs  already  existed  in 
you  of  the  talents  which  distinguish  you  !     In  your  baby 

98 


I855-I859 

boys,  fragile  beings  as  they  are,  there  are  incipient  magi- 
strates, scientists,  heroes  as  valiant  as  those  who  are  now- 
covering  themselves  with  glory  under  the  walls  of  Sebas- 
topol.  And  thus,  gentlemen,  a  theoretical  discovery  has 
but  the  merit  of  its  existence  :  it  awakens  hope,  and  that  is 
all.  But  let  it  be  cultivated,  let  it  grow,  and  you  will  see 
what  it  will  become. 

"  Do  you  know  when  it  first  saw  the  light,  this  electric 
telegraph,  one  of  the  most  marvellous  applications  of  modern 
science?  It  was  in  that  memorable  year,  1822:  Oersted,  a 
Danish  physicist,  held  in  his  hands  a  piece  of  copper  wire, 
joined  by  its  extremities  to  the  two  poles  of  a  Volta  pile. 
On  his  table  was  a  magnetized  needle  on  its  pivot,  and  he 
suddenly  saw  (by  chance  you  will  say,  but  chance  only 
favours  the  mind  which  is  prepared)  the  needle  move  and 
take  up  a  position  quite  different  from  the  one  assigned  to 
it  by  terrestrial  magnetism.  A  wire  carrying  an  electric 
current  deviates  a  magnetized  needle  from  its  position. 
That,  gentlemen,  was  the  birth  of  the  modern  telegraph. 
Franklin's  interlocutor  might  well  have  said  when  the 
needle  moved  :  *  But  what  is  the  use  of  that  ?  '  And  yet 
that  discovery  was  barely  twenty  years  old  when  it  pro- 
duced by  its  application  the  almost  supernatural  effects  of 
the  electric  telegraph  !  " 

The  small  theatre  where  Pasteur  gave  his  chemistry 
lessons  soon  became  celebrated  in  the  students'  world. 

The  faults  had  disappeared  with  which  Pasteur  used  to 
reproach  himself  when  he  first  taught  at  Dijon  and  later 
at  Strasburg.  He  was  sure  of  himself,  he  was  clear  in  his 
explanations  ;  the  chain  of  thought,  the  fitness  of  words,  all 
was  perfect.  He  made  few  experiments,  but  those  were 
decisive.  He  endeavoured  to  bring  out  every  observation 
or  comparison  they  might  suggest.    The  pupil  who  went 

99 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

away  delighted  from  the  class  did  not  suspect  the  care 
each  of  those  apparently  easy  lessons  had  cost.  When 
Pasteur  had  carefully  prepared  all  his  notes,  he  used  to 
make  a  summary  of  them  ;  he  had  these  summaries  bound 
together  afterwards.  We  may  thus  sketch  the  outline  of 
his  work  ;  but  who  will  paint  the  gesture  of  demonstra- 
tion, the  movement,  the  grave  penetrating  voice,  the  life 
in  short? 

After  a  few  months  the  Minister  wrote  to  M.  Guillemin,  the 
rector,  that  he  was  much  pleased  with  the  success  of  this 
Faculty  of  Sciences  at  Lille,  "  which  already  owes  it  to  the 
merit  of  the  teaching — solid  and  brilliant  at  the  same  time — 
of  that  clever  Professor,  that  it  is  able  to  rival  the  most 
flourishing  Faculties."  The  Minister  felt  he  must  add 
some  official  advice  :  "  But  M.  Pasteur  must  guard  against 
being  carried  away  by  his  love  for  science,  and  he  must 
not  forget  that  the  teaching  of  the  Faculties,  whilst  keep- 
ing up  with  scientific  theory,  should,  in  order  to  produce 
useful  and  far-reaching  results,  appropriate  to  itself  the 
special  applications  suitable  to  the  real  wants  of  the 
surrounding  country." 

A  5"ear  after  the  inauguration  of  the  new  Faculty, 
Pasteur  wrote  to  Chappuis:  "Our  classes  are  very  well 
attended  ;  I  have  250  to  300  people  at  my  most  popular 
lectures,  and  we  have  twenty-one  pupils  entered  for  labora- 
tory experiments.  I  believe  that  this  year,  like  last  year, 
Lille  holds  the  first  rank  for  that  innovation,  for  I  am  told 
that  at  Lyons  there  were  but  eight  entries."  It  was  indeed 
a  success  to  distance  Lyons.  "  The  zeal  of  all  is  a  pleasure 
to  watch.  (January,  1856).  It  reaches  that  point  that  four 
of  the  professors  take  the  trouble  to  have  their  manuscript 
lessons  printed  ;  there  are  already  120  subscribers  for  the 
course  of  applied  mechanics. 

100 


I855-I859 

"  Our  building  is  fortunately  completed  ;  it  is  large  and 
handsome,  but  will  soon  become  insufficient  owing  to  the 
progress  of  practical  teaching. 

"  We  are  very  comfortably  settled  on  the  first  floor,  and  I 
have  (on  the  ground  floor  immediately  below)  what  I  have 
always  wished  for,  a  laboratory  where  I  can  go  at  any 
time.  This  week,  for  instance,  the  gas  remains  on,  and 
operations  follow  their  course  whilst  I  am  in  bed.  In 
this  way  I  try  to  make  up  a  little  of  the  time  which  I  have 
to  give  to  the  direction  of  all  the  rather  numerous  depart- 
ments in  our  Faculties.  Add  to  this  that  I  am  a  member 
of  two  very  active  societies,  and  that  I  have  been  entrusted, 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Conseil-Général,^  with  the  testing 
of  manures  for  the  département  of  the  Nord,  a  consider- 
able work  in  this  rich  agricultural  land,  but  one  which  I 
have  accepted  eagerly,  so  as  to  popularize  and  enlarge  the 
influence  of  our  young  Faculty. 

"  Do  not  fear  lest  all  this  should  keep  me  from  the  studies 
I  love.  I  shall  not  give  them  up,  and  I  trust  that  what  is 
already  accomplished  will  grow  without  my  help,  with  the 
growth  that  time  gives  to  everything  that  has  within  it  the 
germ  of  life.  Let  us  all  work  ;  that  only  is  enjoyable.  I 
am  quoting  M.  Biot,  who  certainly  is  an  authority  on  that 
subject.  You  saw  the  share  he  took  the  other  day  in  a 
great  discussion  at  the  Académie  des  Sciences  ;  his  presence 
of  mind,  high  reasoning  powers,  and  youthfulness  were 
magnificent,  and  he  is  eighty-four  !  " 

In  a  mere  study  on  Pasteur  as  a  scientific  man,  the  way 
in  which  he  understood  his  duties  as  Dean  would  only  be  a 
secondary  detail.     It  is  not  so  here,  the  very  object  of  this 

*  Conseil  Général  de  département.  A  representative  assembly  for  the 
general  management  of  each  département,  somewhat  similar  to  the 
County  Councils  in  England.     [Trans.] 

lOI 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

book  being  to  paint  what  he  was  in  all  the  circumstances, 
all  the  trials  of  life.  Besides  his  professional  obligations, 
his  kindness  in  leaving  his  laboratory,  however  hard  the 
sacrifice,  bears  witness  to  an  ever  present  devotion.  For 
instance,  he  took  his  pupils  round  factories  and  foundries 
at  Aniche,  Denain,  Valenciennes,  St.  Omer.  In  July,  1856, 
he  organized  for  the  same  pupils  a  tour  in  Belgium.  He 
took  them  to  visit  factories,  iron  foundries,  steel  and  metal 
works,  questioning  the  foremen  with  his  insatiable  curiosity, 
pleased  to  induce  in  his  tall  students  a  desire  to  learn. 
All  returned  from  these  trips  with  more  pleasure  in  their 
work  ;  some  with  the  fiery  enthusiasm  that  Pasteur  wished 
to  see. 

The  sentence  in  his  Lille  speech,  "  in  the  fields  of  observa- 
tion, chance  only  favours  the  mind  which  is  prepared,"  was 
particularly  applicable  to  him.  In  the  summer  of  1856  a 
Lille  manufacturer,  M.  Bigo,  had,  like  many  others  that 
same  year,  met  with  great  disappointments  in  the  manu- 
facture of  beetroot  alcohol.  He  came  to  the  young  Dean 
for  advice.  The  prospect  of  doing  a  kindness,  of  communi- 
cating the  results  of  his  observations  to  the  numerous 
hearers  who  crowded  the  small  theatre  of  the  Faculty,  and 
of  closely  studying  the  phenomena  of  fermentation  which 
preoccupied  him  to  such  a  degree,  caused  Pasteur  to  consent 
to  make  some  experiments.  He  spent  some  time  almost 
daily  at  the  factory.  On  his  return  to  his  laboratory — 
where  he  only  had  a  student's  microscope  and  a  most 
primitive  coke-fed  stove — he  examined  the  globules  in  the 
fermentation  juice,  he  compared  filtered  with  non-filtered 
beetroot  juice,  and  conceived  stimulating  hypotheses  often 
to  be  abandoned  in  face  of  a  fact  in  contradiction  with  them. 
Above  some  note  made  a  few  days  previously,  where  a  sug- 
gested hypothesis  had  not  been  verified  by  fact,  he  would 

102 


I 855-1 859 

write:  "  error,"  "  erroneous,"  for  he  was  implacable  in  his 
criticism  of  himself. 

M.  Bigo's  son,  who  studied  in  Pasteur's  laboratory,  has 
summed  up  in  a  letter  how  these  accidents  of  manufacture 
became  a  starting  point  to  Pasteur's  investigations  on  fer- 
mentation, particularly  alcoholic  fermentation.  "  Pasteur 
had  noticed  through  the  microscope  that  the  globules  were 
round  when  fermentation  was  healthy,  that  they  lengthened 
when  alteration  began,  and  were  quite  long  when  fermen- 
tation became  lactic.  This  very  simple  method  allowed 
us  to  watch  the  process  and  to  avoid  the  failures  in  fer- 
mentation which  we  used  so  often  to  meet  with.  ...  I 
had  the  good  fortune  to  be  many  times  the  confidant  of 
the  enthusiasms  and  disappointments  of  a  great  man  of 
science."  Young  Bigo  indeed  remembered  the  series  of 
experiments,  the  numerous  observations  noted,  and  how 
Pasteur,  whilst  studying  the  causes  of  those  failures  in  the 
distillery,  had  wondered  whether  he  was  not  confronted 
with  a  general  fact,  common  to  all  fermentations.  Pasteur 
was  on  the  road  to  a  discovery  the  consequences  of  which 
were  to  revolutionize  chemistry.  During  months  and 
months  he  worked  to  assure  himself  that  he  was  not  a 
prey  to  error. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  ideas  which 
from  that  small  laboratory  were  about  to  inundate  the 
world,  and  in  order  to  take  account  of  the  effort  necessitated 
to  obtain  the  triumph  of  a  theory  which  was  to  become  a 
doctrine,  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  to  the  teachings  of  that 
time  upon  the  subject  of  fermentations.  All  was  darkness, 
pierced  in  1836  by  a  momentary  ray  of  light.  The  physicist 
Cagniard-Latour,  studying  the  ferment  of  beer  called  yeast, 
had  observed  that  that  ferment  was  composed  of  cells 
"  susceptible  of  reproduction  by  a  sort  of  budding,  and 

103 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

probably  acting  on  sugar  through  some  effect  of  their 
vegetation."  Almost  at  the  same  time  the  German  doctor 
Schwann  was  making  analogous  observations.  However, 
as  the  fact  seemed  isolated,  nothing  similar  being  met  with 
elsewhere,  Cagniard-Latour's  remark  was  but  a  curious 
parenthesis  in  the  history  of  fermentations. 

When  such  men  as  J.  B.  Dumas  said  that  perhaps  there 
might  be  a  sequel  to  Cagniard-Latour's  statement,  they 
emitted  the  idea  so  timidly  that,  in  a  book  On  Contagion 
published  at  Montpellier  in  1853,  Anglada,  the  well  known 
author,  expressed  himself  thus — 

"  M.  Dumas,  who  is  an  authority,  looks  upon  the  act  of 
fermentation  as  strmtge  and  obscure]  he  declares  that  it 
gives  rise  to  phenomena  the  knowledge  of  which  is  only 
tentative  at  present.  Such  a  competent  affirmation  is  of  a 
nature  to  discourage  those  who  claim  to  unravel  the  mys- 
teries of  contagion  by  the  comparative  study  of  fermenta- 
tion. What  is  the  advantage  of  explaining  one  through 
the  other  since  both  are  equally  mysterious  !  "  This  word, 
obscure  was  to  be  found  everywhere.  Claude  Bernard  used 
the  same  epithet  at  the  Collège  de  France  in  March,  1850, 
to  qualify  those  phenomena. 

Four  months  before  the  request  of  the  Lille  manufacturer, 
Pasteur  himself,  preparing  on  a  loose  sheet  of  paper  a 
lesson  on  fermentation,  had  written  these  words:  "What 
does  fermentation  consist  of? — Mysterious  character  of  the 
phenomenon. — A  word  on  lactic  acid,"  Did  he  speak  in 
that  lesson  of  his  ideas  of  future  experiments?  Did  he 
insist  upon  the  mystery  he  intended  to  unveil  ?  With  his 
powers  of  concentration  it  is  probable  that  he  restrained 
himself  and  decided  to  wait  another  year. 

The  theories  of  Berzelius  and  of  Liebig  then  reigned 
supreme.    To  the  mind  of  Berzelius,  the  Swedish  chemist, 

104 


I855-T859 

fermentation  was  due  to  contact.  It  was  said  that  there 
was  a  catalytic  force.  In  his  opinion,  what  Cagniard- 
Latour  believed  he  had  seen,  was  but  "  an  immediate  vege- 
table principle,  which  became  precipitated  during  the 
fermentation  of  beer,  and  which,  in  precipitating,  presented 
forms  analogous  to  the  simpler  forms  of  vegetable  life,  but 
formation  does  not  constitute  life." 

In  the  view  of  the  German  chemist  Liebig,  chemical 
decomposition  was  produced  by  influence  :  the  ferment  was 
an  extremely  alterable  organic  substance  which  decom- 
posed, and  in  decomposing  set  in  motion,  by  the  rupture  of 
its  own  elements,  the  molecules  of  the  fermentative  matter  ; 
it  was  the  dead  portion  of  the  yeast,  that  which  had  lived 
and  was  being  altered,  which  acted  upon  the  sugar.  These 
theories  were  adopted,  taught,  and  to  be  found  in  all 
treatises  on  chemistry. 

A  vacancy  at  the  Académie  des  Sciences  took  Pasteur 
away  from  his  students  for  a  time  and  obliged  him  to  go 
to  Paris.  Biot,  Dumas,  Balard  and  Senarmont  had  insisted 
upon  his  presenting  himself  in  the  section  of  mineralogy. 
He  felt  himself  unfit  for  the  candidature.  He  was  as 
incapable  of  election  manœuvres  as  he  was  full  of  his 
subject  when  he  had  to  convince  an  interlocutor  or  to 
interest  an  audience  in  his  works  on  crystallography. 
(These  works  had  just  procured  the  bestowal  on  him  of 
the  great  Rumford  medal,  conferred  by  the  London  Royal 
Society.)  During  this  detested  canvassing  campaign  he 
had  one  happy  day:  he  was  present  on  February  5, 
1857,  at  the  reception  of  Biot  by  the  Académie  Fran- 
çaise. 

Biot,  who  had  entered  the  Académie  des  Sciences  fifty- 
four  years  earlier,  and  was  now  the  oldest  member  of  the 

105 


THE  LIFE   OF  PASTEUR 

Institute,  took  advantage  of  his  great  age  to  distribute,  in 
the  course  of  his  speech,  a  good  deal  of  wise  counsel,  much 
applauded  by  Pasteur  from  the  ranks  of  the  audience. 
Biot,  with  his  calm  irony,  aimed  this  epigram  at  men  oi 
science  who  disdained  letters  :  "  Their  science  was  not  the 
more  apparent  through  their  want  of  literary  culture." 
He  ended  by  remarks  which  formed  a  continuation  of  his 
last  letter  to  Pasteur's  father.  Making  an  appeal  to  those 
whose  high  ambition  is  to  consecrate  themselves  to  pure 
science,  he  proudly  said:  "Perhaps  your  name,  your  exist- 
ence will  be  unknown  to  the  crowd.  But  you  will  be 
known,  esteemed,  sought  after  by  a  small  number  of 
eminent  men  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  your 
rivals,  your  peers  in  the  intellectual  Senate  of  minds  ;  they 
alone  have  the  right  to  appreciate  you  and  to  assign  to 
you  your  rank,  a  well  merited  rank,  which  no  princely  will, 
no  popular  caprice  can  give  or  take  away,  and  which 
will  remain  yours  as  long  as  you  remain  faithful  to 
Science,  which  bestows  it  upon  you." 

Guizot,  to  whom  it  fell  to  welcome  Biot  to  the  Académie, 
rendered  homage  to  his  independence,  to  his  worship  of 
disinterested  research,  to  his  ready  counsels.  "  The  events 
which  have  overturned  everything  around  you,"  he  said, 
"have  never  turned  the  course  of  your  free  and  firm 
judgment,  or  of  your  peaceful  labours."  On  that  occasion 
the  decline  of  Biot' s  life  seemed  like  a  beautiful  summer 
evening  in  the  north,  before  nightfall,  when  a  soft  light 
still  envelops  all  things.  No  disciple  ever  felt  more  emotion 
than  Pasteur  when  participating  in  that  last  joy  of  his  aged 
master.  In  Regnault's  laboratory,  a  photograph  had  been 
taken  of  Biot  seated  with  bent  head  and  a  weary  attitude, 
but  with  the  old  sparkle  in  his  eyes.  Biot  offered  it  to 
Pasteur,  saying  :  "  If  you  place  this  proof  near  a  portrait 

1 06 


I855-I859 

ot  your  father,  you  will  unite  the  pictures  of  two  men  who 
have  loved  you  very  much  in  the  same  way." 

Pasteur,  between  two  canvassing  visits,  gave  himself  the 
pleasure  of  going  to  hear  a  young  professor  that  every  one 
was  then  speaking  of.  "I  have  just  been  to  a  lecture  by 
Rigault,  at  the  Collège  de  France,"  he  wrote  on  March  6, 
1857.  "  The  room  is  too  small,  it  is  a  struggle  to  get  in.  I 
have  come  away  delighted  ;  it  is  a  splendid  success  for  the 
Université,  there  is  nothing  to  add,  nothing  to  retrench. 
Fancy  a  professor  in  one  of  the  Paris  lycées  making  such  a 
début  at  the  Collège  de  France  !  " 

Pasteur  preferred  Rigault  to  St.  Marc  Girardin.  "  And 
Rigault  is  only  beginning  !  "  But,  under  Rigault's  elegance 
and  apparent  ease,  lurked  perpetual  constraint.  One  day 
that  St.  Marc  Girardin  was  congratulating  him,  "  Ah," 
said  Rigault,  "you  do  not  see  the  steel  corsets  that  I  wear 
when  I  am  speaking  !  "  That  comparison  suited  his  deli- 
cate, ingenious,  slightly  artificial  mind,  never  unrestrained 
even  in  simple  conversation,  at  the  same  time  conscientious 
and  self-conscious.  He  who  had  once  written  that  "  Life 
is  a  work  of  art  to  be  fashioned  by  a  skilful  hand  if  the 
faculties  of  the  mind  are  to  be  fully  enjoyed,"  made  the 
mistake  of  forcing  his  nature.  He  died  a  few  months  after 
that  lecture. 

Pasteur's  enthusiastic  lines  about  Rigault  show  the  joy 
he  felt  at  the  success  of  others.  He  did  not  understand 
envy,  ill-will,  or  jealousy,  and  was  more  than  astonished, 
indeed  amazed,  when  he  came  across  such  feelings.  One 
day  that  he  had  read  an  important  paper  at  the  Académie  des 
Sciences,  "  Would  you  believe  it,"  he  wrote  to  his  father, 
"I  met  a  Paris  Professor  of  chemistry  the  very  next  day, 
whom  I  know  to  have  been  present,  who  had  indeed  come 
purposely  to  hear  my  reading,  and  he  never  said  a  word  ! 

107 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

I  then  remembered  a  saying  of  M.  Biot's  :  *  When  a  col- 
league reads  a  paper  and  no  one  speaks  to  him  about  it 
afterwards,  it  is  because  it  has  been  thought  well  of.  .  .  .'  " 

The  election  was  at  hand.  Pasteur  wrote  (March  1 1)  : 
"My  dear  father,  I  am  certain  to  fail."  He  thought  he 
might  count  upon  twenty  votes  ;  thirty  were  necessary.  He 
resigned  himself  philosophically.  His  candidature  would 
at  any  rate  bring  his  works  into  greater  prominence.  In 
spite  of  a  splendid  report  by  Senarmont,  enumerating  the 
successive  steps  by  which  Pasteur  had  risen  since  his 
first  discoveries  concerning  the  connection  between  in- 
ternal structure  and  external  crystalline  forms,  Pasteur 
only  obtained  sixteen  votes. 

On  his  return  to  Lille  he  set  to  work  with  renewed 
energy  ;  he  took  up  again  his  study  of  fermentations,  and  in 
particular  that  of  sour  milk,  called  lactic  fermentation  ;  he 
made  notes  of  his  experiments  day  by  day  ;  he  drew  in  a 
notebook  the  little  globules,  the  tiny  bodies  that  he  found 
in  a  grey  substance  sometimes  arranged  in  a  zone.  Those 
globules,  much  smaller  than  those  of  yeast,  had  escaped 
the  observation  of  chemists  and  naturalists  because  it  was 
easy  to  confound  them  with  other  products  of  lactic  fer- 
mentation. After  isolating  and  then  scattering  in  a  liquid 
a  trace  of  that  grey  substance,  Pasteur  saw  some  well- 
characterized  lactic  fermentation  appear.  That  matter, 
that  grey  substance  was  indeed  the  ferment. 

Whilst  all  the  writings  of  the  chemists  who  followed  in 
the  train  of  Liebig  and  Berzelius  united  in  rejecting  the 
idea  of  an  influence  of  life  in  the  cause  of  fermentations, 
Pasteur  recognized  therein  a  phenomenon  correlative  to 
life.  That  special  lactic  yeast,  Pasteur  could  see  budding, 
multiplying,  and  offering  the  same  phenomena  of  repro- 
duction as  beer  yeast. 

1 08 


i855-ii^59 

It  was  not  to  the  Académie  des  Sciences,  as  is  generally 
believed,  that  Pasteur  sent  the  paper  on  lactic  fermentation, 
the  fifteen  pages  of  which  contained  such  curious  and 
unexpected  facts.  With  much  delicacy  of  feeling,  Pasteur 
made  to  the  Lille  Scientific  Society  this  communication 
(August,  1857)  which  the  Académie  des  Sciences  only  saw 
three  months  later. 

How  was  it  that  he  desired  to  leave  this  Faculty  at  Lille 
to  which  he  had  rendered  such  valuable  service?     The 
Ecole  Normale  was  going  through  difficult  times.    "  In  my 
opinion,"  wrote  Pasteur  with  a  sadness  that  betrayed  his 
attachment  to  the  great  school,  "  of  all  the  objects  of  care 
to  the  authorities,  the  Ecole  Normale  should  be  the  first  ;  it 
is  now  but  the  shadow  of  its  former  self."     He  who  so 
often  said,  "  Do  not  dwell  upon  things  already  acquired  !  " 
thought  that  the  Lille  Faculty  was  henceforth  sure  of  its 
future  and  needed  him  no  longer.      Was  it  not  better 
to  come  to  the  assistance  of  the  threatened  weak  point  ? 
At  the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  his  wish  was  under- 
stood and  approved  of.   Nisard  had  just  been  made  Director 
of  the  Ecole   Normale  with   high  and  supreme   powers; 
his  sub-director    of    literary   studies   was    M.  Jacquinet. 
The  administration  was  reserved  for   Pasteur,  who  was 
also  entrusted  with  the  direction  of  the  scientific  studies. 
To    that    task    were    added    "  the    surveillance    of    the 
economic  and  hygienic  management,  the  care  of  general 
discipline,  intercourse  with  the  families  of  the  pupils  and 
the   literary   or    scientific   establishments   frequented    by 
them." 

The  rector  of  the  Lille  Faculty  announced  in  these 
terms  the  departure  of  the  Dean:  "Our  Faculty  loses  a 
professor  and  a  scientist  of  the  very  first  order.  You  have 
yourselves,  gentlemen,  been  able  to  appreciate  more  than 

109 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

once  all  the  vigour  and  clearness  of  that  mind  at  once  so 
powerful  and  so  capable." 

At  the  Ecole  Normale,  Pasteur's  labours  were  not  at  first 
seconded  by  material  convenience.  The  only  laboratory  in 
the  Rue  d'Ulm  building  was  occupied  by  Henri  Sainte  Claire 
De  ville  who,  in  1851,  had  taken  the  place  of  Balard,  the 
latter  leaving  the  Ecole  Normale  for  the  Collège  de  France. 
Dark  rooms,  a  very  few  instruments,  and  a  credit  of  1,800 
francs  a  year,  that  was  all  Sainte  Claire  Deville  had  been 
able  to  obtain.  It  would  have  seemed  like  a  dream  to 
Pasteur.  He  had  to  organize  his  scientific  installation  in 
two  attics  under  the  roof  of  the  Ecole  Normale;  he  had 
no  assistance  of  any  kind,  not  even  that  of  an  ordinary 
laboratory  attendant.  But  his  courage  was  not  of  the  kind 
which  evaporates  at  the  first  obstacle,  and  no  difficulty 
could  have  kept  him  from  work;  he  climbed  the  stairs 
leading  to  his  pseudo-laboratory  with  all  the  cheerfulness 
of  a  soldier's  son.  Biot — who  had  been  grieved  to  see  the 
chemist  Laurent  working  in  a  sort  of  cellar,  where  that 
scientist's  health  suffered  (he  died  at  forty-three) — was 
angry  that  Pasteur  should  be  relegated  to  an  uninhabitable 
garret.  Neither  did  he  understand  the  "economic  and 
hygienic  surveillance"  attributed  to  Pasteur.  He  hoped 
Pasteur  w^ould  reduce  to  their  just  proportions  those  second- 
ary duties.  "  They  have  made  him  an  administrator,"  he 
said  with  mock  pomposity;  "let  them  believe  that  he  will 
administrate."  Biot  was  mistaken.  The  de  minimis  non 
curat  did  not  exist  for  Pasteur. 

On  one  of  his  agenda  leaves,  besides  subjects  for  lectures, 
we  find  notes  such  as  these:  "Catering;  ascertain  what 
weight  of  meat  per  pupil  is  given  out  at  the  Ecole  Poly- 
technique.  Courtyard  to  be  strewn  with  sand.  Ventilation 
of  classroom.     Dining  hall  door  to  be  repaired."     Each 

no 


I 855-1859 

detail  was  of  importance  in  his  eyes,  when  the  health  of 
the  students  was  in  question. 

He  inaugurated  his  garret  by  some  work  almost  as  cele- 
brated as  that  on  lactic  fermentation.  In  December,  1857, 
he  presented  to  the  Académie  des  Sciences  a  paper  on 
alcoholic  fermentation.  "  I  have  submitted,"  he  said,  "  al- 
coholic fermentation  to  the  method  of  experimentation 
indicated  in  the  notes  which  I  recently  had  the  honour  of 
presenting  to  the  Académie.  The  results  of  those  labours 
should  be  put  on  the  same  lines,  for  they  explain  and  com- 
plete each  other."  And  in  conclusion  :  "  The  deduplication 
of  sugar  into  alcohol  and  carbonic  acid  is  correlative  to  a 
phenomenon  of  life,  an  organization  of  globules  ..." 

The  reports  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences  for  1858  show 
how  Pasteur  recognized  complex  phenomena  in  alcoholic 
fermentation.  Whilst  chemists  were  content  to  say:  "So 
much  sugar  gives  so  m.uch  alcohol  and  so  much  carbonic 
acid,"  Pasteur  went  further.  He  wrote  to  Chappuis  in 
June  :  "  I  find  that  alcoholic  fermentation  is  constantly 
accompanied  by  the  production  of  glycerine  ;  it  is  a  very 
curious  fact.  For  instance,  in  one  litre  of  wine  there 
are  several  grammes  of  that  product  which  had  not  been 
suspected."  Shortly  before  that,  he  had  also  recognized  the 
normal  presence  in  alcoholic  fermentation  of  succinic  acid. 
"  I  should  be  pursuing  the  consequences  of  these  facts,"  he 
added,  "  if  a  temperature  of  36°  C.  did  not  keep  me  from 
my  laboratory.  I  regret  to  see  the  longest  days  in  the 
year  lost  to  me.  Yet  I  have  grown  accustomed  to  my  attic, 
and  I  should  be  sorry  to  leave  it.  Next  holidays  I  hope 
to  enlarge  it.  You  too  are  struggling  against  material 
hindrances  in  your  work;  let  it  stimulate  us,  my  dear 
fellow,  and  not  discourage  us.  Our  discoveries  will  have 
the  greater  merit." 

Ill 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

The  year  1859  was  given  up  to  examining  further 
facts  concerning  fermentation.  Whence  came  those  fer- 
ments, those  microscopic  bodies,  those  transforming  agents, 
so  weak  in  appearance,  so  powerful  in  reality?  Great 
problems  were  working  in  his  mind;  but  he  was  careful 
not  to  propound  them  hastily,  for  he  was  the  most  timid, 
the  most  hesitating  of  men  until  he  held  proofs  in  his 
hands.  "  In  experimental  science,"  he  wrote,  "  it  is  always 
a  mistake  not  to  doubt  when  facts  do  not  compel  you  to 
affirm." 

In  September  he  lost  his  eldest  daughter.  She  died  of 
typhoid  fever  at  Arbois,  where  she  was  staying  with  her 
grandfather.  On  December  30  Pasteur  wrote  to  his  father  : 
"I  cannot  keep  my  thoughts  from  my  poor  little  girl,  so 
good,  so  happy  in  her  little  life,  whom  this  fatal  year  now 
ending  has  taken  away  from  us.  She  was  growing  to  be 
such  a  companion  to  her  mother  and  to  me,  to  us  all.  .  .  . 
But  forgive  me,  dearest  father,  for  recalling  these  sad 
memories.  She  is  happy  ;  let  us  think  of  those  who  remain 
and  try  as  much  as  lies  in  our  power  to  keep  from  them 
the  bitterness  of  this  life." 


112 


CHAPTER  V 
I  860-  I  864 

ON  January  30,  i860,  the  Académie  des  Sciences  con- 
ferred on  Pasteur  the  Prize  for  Experimental  Physi- 
ology. Claude  Bernard,  who  drew  up  the  report,  recalled 
how  much  Pasteur's  experiments  in  alcoholic  fermentation, 
lactic  fermentation,  the  fermentation  of  tartaric  acid,  had 
been  appreciated  by  the  Académie.  He  dwelt  upon  the 
great  physiological  interest  of  the  results  obtained.  *'  It 
is,"  he  concluded,  "  by  reason  of  that  physiological  tendency 
in  Pasteur's  researches,  that  the  Commission  has  unani- 
mously selected  him  for  the  1859  Prize  for  Experimental 
Physiology." 

That  same  January,  Pasteur  wrote  to  Chappuis:  "I  am 
pursuing  as  best  I  can  these  studies  on  fermentation 
which  are  of  great  interest,  connected  as  they  are  with  the 
impenetrable  mystery  of  Life  and  Death.  I  am  hoping  to 
mark  a  decisive  step  very  soon  by  solving,  without  the 
least  confusion,  the  celebrated  question  of  spontaneous 
generation.  Already  I  could  speak,  but  I  want  to  push 
my  experiments  yet  further.  There  is  so  much  obscurity, 
together  with  so  much  passion,  on  both  sides,  that  I  shall 
require  the  accuracy  of  an  arithmetical  problem  to  con- 
vince my  opponents  by  my  conclusions.  I  intend  to  attain 
even  that." 

This  progress  was  depicted  to  his  father  in  the  following 
letter,  dated  February  7,  i860 — 

VOL.  I.  113  I 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

"  I  think  I  told  you  that  I  should  read  a  second  and  last 
lecture  on  my  old  researches  on  Friday,  at  the  Chemical 
Society,  before  several  members  of  the  Institute — amongst 
others,  Messrs.  Dumas  and  Claude  Bernard.  That  lecture 
has  had  the  same  success  as  the  first.  M.  Biot  heard  about 
it  the  next  day  through  some  distinguished  persons  who 
were  in  the  audience,  and  sent  for  me  in  order  to  kindly 
express  his  great  satisfaction. 

"  After  I  had  finished,  M.  Dumas,  who  occupied  the  chair, 
rose  and  addressed  me  in  these  words.  After  praising  the 
zeal  I  had  brought  to  this  novel  kind  of  teaching  at  the 
Society's  request,  and  the  so  great  penetration  I  had  given 
proof  of^  in  the  course  of  the  work  I  had  just  expounded^  he 
added,  '  The  Académie,  sir,  rewarded  you  a  few  days  ago  for 
other  profound  researches  ;  your  audience  of  this  evening  will 
applaud  you  as  one  of  the  most  distinguished  professors  we 
possess.^ 

"All  I  have  underlined  was  said  in  those  very  words  by 
M.  Dumas,  and  was  followed  by  great  applause. 

"  All  the  students  of  the  scientific  section  of  the  Ecole 
Normale  were  present  ;  they  felt  deeply  moved,  and  several 
of  them  have  expressed  their  emotion  to  me. 

"  As  for  myself,  I  saw  the  realization  of  what  I  had  fore- 
seen. You  know  how  I  have  always  told  you  confidentially 
that  time  would  see  the  growth  of  my  researches  on  the 
molecular  dissymmetry  of  natural  organic  products.  Founded 
as  they  were  on  varied  ^notions  borrowed  from  divers 
branches  of  science — crystallography,  physics,  and  chemistry 
— those  studies  could  not  be  followed  by  most  scientists  so  as 
to  be  fully  understood.  On  this  occasion  I  presented  them 
in  the  aggregate  with  some  clearness  and  power,  and  every 
one  was  struck  by  their  importance. 

"  It  is  not  by  their  form  that  these  two  lectures  have  de- 

"4 


I860-I864 

lighted  my  hearers,  it  is  by  their  contents  ;  it  is  the  future 
reserved  to  those  great  results,  so  unexpected,  and  opening 
such  entirely  new  vistas  to  physiology.  I  have  dared  to 
say  so,  for  at  these  heights  all  sense  of  personality  disap- 
pears, and  there  only  remains  that  sense  of  dignity  which  is 
ever  inspired  by  true  love  of  science. 

"God  grant  that  by  my  persevering  labours  I  may  bring 
a  little  stone  to  the  frail  and  ill-assured  edifice  of  our  know- 
ledge of  those  deep  mysteries  of  Life  and  Death  where  all 
our  intellects  have  so  lamentably  failed. 

"P.S. — Yesterday  I  presented  to  the  Academy  my  re- 
searches on  spontaneous  generation  ;  they  seemed  to  produce 
a  great  sensation.     More  later." 

When  Biot  heard  that  Pasteur  wished  to  tackle  this  study 
of  spontaneous  generation,  he  interposed,  as  he  had  done 
seven  years  before,  to  arrest  him  on  the  verge  of  his  auda- 
cious experiments  on  the  part  played  by  dissymmetrical 
forces  in  the  development  of  life.  Vainly  Pasteur,  grieved 
at  Blot's  disapprobation,  explained  that  this  question,  in  the 
course  of  such  researches,  had  become  an  imperious  neces- 
sity ;  Biot  would  not  be  convinced.  But  Pasteur,  in  spite 
of  his  quasi-filial  attachment  to  Biot,  could  not  stop  where 
he  was  ;  he  had  to  go  through  to  the  end. 

"  You  will  never  find  your  way  out,"  cried  Biot. 

"  I  shall  try,"  said  Pasteur  modestly. 

Angry  and  anxious,  Biot  wished  Pasteur  to  promise  that 
he  would  relinquish  these  apparently  hopeless  researches. 
J.  B.  Dumas,  to  whom  Pasteur  related  the  more  than  dis- 
couraging remonstrances  of  Biot,  entrenched  himself  behind 
this  cautious  phrase — 

"  I  would  advise  no  one  to  dwell  too  long  on  such  a  sub- 
ject." 

Senarmont  alone,  full  of  confidence  in   the  ingenious 

115 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

curiosity  of  the  man  who  could  read  nature  by  dint  of 
patience,  said  that  Pasteur  should  be  allowed  his  own  way. 

It  is  regrettable  that  Biot — whose  passion  for  reading 
was  so  indefatigable  that  he  complained  of  not  finding 
enough  books  in  the  library  at  the  Institute — should  not 
have  thought  of  writing  the  history  of  this  question  of 
spontaneous  generation.  He  could  have  gone  back  to  Aris- 
totle, quoted  Lucretius,  Virgil,  Ovid,  Pliny.  Philosophers, 
poets,  naturalists,  all  believed  in  spontaneous  generation. 
Time  went  on,  and  it  was  still  believed  in.  In  the  six- 
teenth century.  Van  Helmont — who  should  not  be  judged 
by  that  one  instance — gave  a  celebrated  recipe  to  create 
mice  :  any  one  could  work  that  prodigy  by  putting  some 
dirty  linen  in  a  receptacle,  together  with  a  few  grains  of 
wheat  or  a  piece  of  cheese.  Some  time  later  an  Italian, 
Buonanni,  announced  a  fact  no  less  fantastic  :  certain 
timberwood,  he  said,  after  rotting  in  the  sea,  produced 
worms  which  engendered  butterflies,  and  those  butterflies 
became  birds. 

Another  Italian,  less  credulous,  a  poet  and  a  physician, 
Francesco  Redi,  belonging  to  a  learned  society  calling  itself 
The  Academy  of  Experience,  resolved  to  carefully  study 
one  of  those  supposed  phenomena  of  spontaneous  generation. 
In  order  to  demonstrate  that  the  worms  found  in  rotten 
meat  did  not  appear  spontaneously,  he  placed  a  piece  of 
gauze  over  the  meat.  Flies,  attracted  by  the  odour,  depo- 
sited their  eggs  on  the  gauze.  From  those  eggs  were 
hatched  the  worms,  which  had  until  then  been  supposed  to 
begin  life  spontaneously  in  the  flesh  itself.  This  simple 
experiment  marked  some  progress.  Later  on  another 
Italian,  a  medical  professor  of  Padua,  Vallisneri,  recognized 
that  the  grub  in  a  fruit  is  also  hatched  from  an  egg  depo- 
sited by  an  insect  before  the  development  of  the  fruit. 

Ii6 


I860-I864 

The  theory  of  spontaneous  generation,  still  losing  ground 
appeared  to  be  vanquished  when  the  invention  of  the  micro- 
scope at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  brought  fresh 
arguments  to  its  assistance.  Whence  came  those  thousands 
of  creatures,  only  distinguishable  on  the  slide  of  the  micro- 
scope, those  infinitely  small  beings  which  appeared  in  rain 
water  as  in  any  infusion  of  organic  matter  when  exposed 
to  the  air  ?  How  could  they  be  explained  otherwise  than 
through  spontaneous  generation,  those  bodies  capable  of 
producing  1,000,000  descendants  in  less  than  forty-eight 
hours. 

The  world  of  salons  and  of  minor  courts  was  pleased  to 
have  an  opinion  on  this  question.  The  Cardinal  of  Polignac, 
a  diplomat  and  a  man  of  letters,  wrote  in  his  leisure  moments 
a  long  Latin  poem  entitled  the  Anti- Lucretius.  After  scout- 
ing Lucretius  and  other  philosophers  of  the  same  school,  the 
cardinal  traced  back  to  one  Supreme  Foresight  the  mechan- 
ism and  organization  of  the  entire  world.  By  ingenious 
developments  and  circumlocutions,  worthy  of  the  Abbé 
Delille,  the  cardinal,  while  vaunting  the  wonders  of  the 
microscope,  which  he  called  "  eye  of  our  eye,"  saw  in  it  only 
another  prodigy  offered  us  by  Almighty  Wisdom.  Of  all 
those  accumulated  and  verified  arguments,  this  simple 
notion  stood  out:  "The  earth,  which  contains  numberless 
germs,  has  not  produced  them.  Everything  in  this  world 
has  its  germ  or  seed." 

Diderot,  who  disseminated  so  many  ideas  (since  borrowed 
by  many  people  and  used  as  if  originated  by  them),  wrote 
in  some  tumultuous  pages  on  nature  :  "  Does  living  matter 
combine  with  living  matter  ?  how  ?  and  with  what  result  ? 
And  what  about  dead  matter  ?  " 

About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  problem 
was  again  raised  on  scientific  ground.    Two  priests,  one 

117 


THE   LIFE  OF   PASTEUR 

an  Englishman,  Needham,  and  the  other  an  Italian,  Spal- 
lanzani,  entered  the  lists.  Needham,  a  great  partisan  of 
spontaneous  generation,  studied  with  Bufifon  some  micro- 
scopic animalculae.  Buffon  afterwards  built  up  a  whole 
system  which  became  fashionable  at  that  time.  The  force 
which  Needham  found  in  matter,  a  force  which  he  called 
productive  or  vegetative,  and  which  he  regarded  as  charged 
with  the  formation  of  the  organic  world,  Bufifon  explained 
by  saying  that  there  are  certain  primitive  and  incorrup- 
tible parts  common  to  animals  and  to  vegetables.  These 
organic  molecules  cast  themselves  into  the  moulds  or  shapes 
which  constituted  different  beings.  When  one  of  those 
moulds  was  destroyed  by  death,  the  organic  molecules 
became  free  ;  ever  active,  they  worked  the  putrefied  matter, 
appropriating  to  themselves  some  raw  particles  and  forming, 
said  Bufifon,  "  by  their  reunion,  a  multitude  of  little  orga- 
nized bodies,  of  which  some,  like  earthworms,  and  fungi, 
seem  to  be  fair-sized  animals  or  vegetables,  but  of  which 
others,  in  almost  infinite  numbers,  can  only  be  seen  through 
the  microscope." 

All  those  bodies,  according  to  him,  only  existed  through 
spontaneous  generation.  Spontaneous  generation  takes 
place  continually  and  universally  after  death  and  some- 
times during  life.  Such  was  in  his  view  the  origin  of  intes- 
tinal worms.  And,  carrying  his  investigations  further,  he 
added,  "  The  eels  in  flour  paste,  those  of  vinegar,  all  those 
so-called  microscopic  animals,  are  but  different  shapes  taken 
spontaneously,  according  to  circumstances,  by  that  ever 
active  matter  which  only  tends  to  organization. 

The  Abbé  Spallanzani,  armed  with  a  microscope,  studied 
these  infinitesimal  beings.  He  tried  to  distinguish  them 
and  their  mode  of  life.  Needham  had  affirmed  that  by 
enclosing  putrescible  matter  in  vases  and  by  placing  those 

1 18 


I860-I864 

vases  on  warm  ashes,  he  produced  animalculse.  Spallan- 
zani  suspected:  firstly  that  Needham  had  not  exposed  the 
vases  to  a  sufficient  degree  of  heat  to  kill  the  seeds  which 
were  inside  ;  and  secondly,  that  seeds  could  easily  have 
entered  those  vases  and  given  birth  to  animalculae,  for 
Needham  had  only  closed  his  vases  with  cork  stoppers, 
which  are  very  porous. 

*'  I  repeated  that  experiment  with  more  accuracy,"  wrote 
Spallanzani.  "  I  used  hermetically  sealed  vases.  I  kept 
them  for  an  hour  in  boiling  water,  and  after  having  opened 
them  and  examined  their  contents  within  a  reasonable  time 
I  found  not  the  slightest  trace  of  animalculse,  though  I  had 
examined  with  the  microscope  the  infusions  from  nineteen 
different  vases." 

Thus  dropped  to  the  ground,  in  Spallanzani's  eyes.  Need- 
ham's  singular  theory,  this  famous  vegetative  force,  this 
occult  virtue.  Yet  Needham  did  not  own  himself  beaten. 
He  retorted  that  Spallanzani  had  much  weakened,  perhaps 
destroyed,  the  vegetative  force  of  the  infused  substances  by 
leaving  his  vases  in  boiling  water  during  an  hour.  He 
advised  him  to  try  with  less  heat. 

The  public  took  an  interest  in  this  quarrel.  In  an  opus- 
cule entitled  Singularities  of  Nature  (1769),  Voltaire,  a 
born  journalist,  laughed  at  Needham,  whom  he  turned  into 
an  Irish  Jesuit  to  amuse  his  readers.  Joking  on  this  race 
of  so-called  eels  which  began  life  in  the  gravy  of  boiled 
mutton,  he  said  :  "  At  once  several  philosophers  exclaimed  at 
the  wonder  and  said,  '  There  is  no  germ  ;  all  is  made,  all  is 
regenerated  by  a  vital  force  of  nature.'  *  Attraction,'  said 
one;  'Organized  matter,'  said  another,  'they  are  organic 
molecules  which  have  found  their  casts.'  Clever  physicists 
were  taken  in  by  a  Jesuit." 

In  those  pages,  lightly  penned,  nothing  remained  of  what 

119 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Voltaire  called  "  the  ridiculous  mistake,  the  unfortunate 
experiments  of  Needham,  so  triumphantly  refuted  by 
M.  Spallanzani  and  rejected  bj'-  whoever  has  studied  nature 
at  all."  "It  is  now  demonstrated  to  sight  and  to  reason 
that  there  is  no  vegetable,  no  animal  but  has  its  own  germ." 
In  his  Philosophic  Dictionary^  at  the  word  God,  "  It  is  very 
strange,"  said  Voltaire,  "  that  men  should  deny  a  creator 
and  yet  attribute  to  themselves  the  power  of  creating  eels!  " 
The  Abbé  Needham,  meeting  with  these  religious  argu- 
ments, rather  unexpected  from  Voltaire,  endeavoured  to 
prove  that  the  hypothesis  of  spontaneous  generation  was 
in  perfect  accordance  with  religious  beliefs.  But  both  on 
Needham's  side  and  on  Spallanzani's  there  was  a  complete 
lack  of  conclusive  proofs. 

Philosophic  argumentation  always  returned  to  the  fore. 
As  recently  as  1846  Ernest  Bersot  (a  moralist  who  became 
later  a  director  of  the  Ecole  Normale)  wrote  in  his  book 
on  Spiritualism  :  "  The  doctrine  of  spontaneous  generation 
pleases  simplicity-loving  minds  ;  it  leads  them  far  beyond 
their  own  expectations.  But  it  is  yet  only  a  private 
opinion,  and,  were  it  recognized,  its  virtue  would  have  to 
be  limited  and  narrowed  down  to  the  production  of  a  few 
inferior  animals." 

That  doctrine  was  about  to  be  noisily  re-introduced. 

On  December  20,  1858,  a  correspondent  of  the  Institute, 
M.  Pouchet,  director  of  the  Natural  History  Museum  of 
Rouen,  sent  to  the  Académie  des  Sciences  a  Note  on 
Vegetable  and  Animal  Proto-organisms  spontaneously 
Generated  in  Artificial  Air  and  in  Oxygen  Gas.  The 
note  began  thus  :  "At  this  time  when,  seconded  by  the 
progress  of  science,  several  naturalists  are  endeavouring 
to  reduce  the  domain  of  spontaneous  generation  or  even  to 

120 


I860-I864 

deny  its  existence  altogether,  I  have  undertaken  a  series 
of  researches  with  the  object  of  elucidating  this  vexed 
question."  Pouchet,  declaring  that  he  had  taken  excessive 
precautions  to  preserve  his  experiments  from  any  cause  of 
error,  proclaimed  that  he  was  prepared  to  demonstrate  that 
"  animals  and  plants  could  be  generated  in  a  medium  abso- 
lutely free  from  atmospheric  air,  and  in  which,  therefore, 
no  germ  of  organic  bodies  could  have  been  brought  by  air." 

On  one  copy  of  that  communication,  the  opening  of  a 
four  years'  scientific  campaign,  Pasteur  had  underlined  the 
passages  which  he  intended  to  submit  to  rigorous  experi- 
mentation. The  scientific  world  was  discussing  the  matter  ; 
Pasteur  set  himseli  to  work. 

A  new  installation,  albeit  a  summary  one,  allowed  him 
to  attempt  some  delicate  experiments.  At  one  of  the  ex- 
tremities of  the  façade  of  the  Ecole  Normale,  on  the  same 
line  as  the  doorkeeper's  lodge,  a  pavilion  had  been  built 
for  the  school  architect  and  his  clerk.  Pasteur  succeeded 
in  obtaining  possession  of  this  small  building,  and  trans- 
formed it  into  a  laboratory.  He  built  a  drying  stove  under 
the  staircase  ;  though  he  could  only  reach  the  stove  by 
crawling  on  his  knees,  yet  this  was  better  than  his  old 
attic.  He  also  had  a  pleasant  surprise — he  was  given  a 
curator.  He  had  deserved  one  sooner,  for  he  had  founded 
the  institution  of  agrégés  préparateurs.  Remembering  his 
own  desire,  on  leaving  the  Ecole  Normale,  to  have  a  year  or 
two  for  independent  study,  he  had  wished  to  facilitate  for 
others  the  obtaining  of  those  few  years  of  research  and 
perhaps  inspiration.  Thanks  to  him,  five  places  as  labora- 
tory curators  were  exclusively  reserved  to  Ecole  Normale 
students  who  had  taken  their  degree  {agrégés).  The  first 
curator  who  entered  the  new  laboratory  was  Jules  Raulin, 
a  young  man  with  a  clear  and  sagacious  mind,  a  calm  and 

121 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

tenacious  character,  loving  difficulties  for  the  sake  of  over- 
coming them. 

Pasteur  began  by  the  microscopic  study  of  atmospheric 
air.  "  If  germs  exist  in  atmosphere,"  he  said,  "could  they 
not  be  arrested  on  their  way  ?"  It  then  occurred  to  him  to 
draw — through  an  aspirator — a  current  of  outside  air 
through  a  tube  containing  a  little  plug  of  cotton  wool. 
The  current  as  it  passed  deposited  on  this  sort  of  filter  some 
of  the  solid  corpuscles  contained  in  the  air  ;  the  cotton  wool 
often  became  black  with  those  various  kinds  of  dust.  Pas- 
teur assured  himself  that  amongst  various  detritus  those 
dusts  presented  spores  and  germs.  "There  are  therefore 
in  the  air  some  organized  corpuscles.  Are  they  germs 
capable  of  vegetable  productions,  or  of  infusions  ?  That  is 
the  question  to  solve."  He  undertook  a  series  of  experi- 
ments to  demonstrate  that  the  most  putrescible  liquid 
remained  pure  indefinitely  if  placed  out  of  the  reach  of 
atmospheric  dusts.  But  it  was  sufficient  to  place  in  a  pure 
liquid  a  particle  of  the  cotton-wool  filter  to  obtain  an  im- 
mediate alteration. 

A  year  before  starting  any  discussion  Pasteur  wrote  to 
Pouchet  that  the  results  which  he  had  attained  were  "  not 
founded  on  facts  of  a  faultless  exactitude.  I  think  you  are 
wrong,  not  in  believing  in  spontaneous  generation  (for  it  is 
difficult  in  such  a  case  not  to  have  a  preconceived  idea), 
but  in  affirming  the  existence  of  spontaneous  generation. 
In  experimental  science  it  is  always  a  mistake  not  to  doubt 
when  facts  do  not  compel  affirmation.  ...  In  my  opinion, 
the  question  is  whole  and  untouched  by  decisive  proofs. 
What  is  there  in  air  which  provokes  organization?  Are 
they  germs  ?  is  it  a  solid  ?  is  it  a  gas  ?  is  it  a  fluid  ?  is  it  a 
principle  such  as  ozone  ?  All  this  is  unknown  and  invites 
experiment." 

122 


I860-I864 

After  a  year's  study,  Pasteur  reached  this  conclusion: 
"  Gases,  fluids,  electricity,  magnetism,  ozone,  things  known 
or  things  occult,  there  is  nothing  in  the  air  that  is  con- 
ditional to  life,  except  the  germs  that  it  carries." 

Pouchet  defended  himself  vigorously.  To  suppose  that 
germs  came  from  air  seemed  to  him  impossible.  How  many 
millions  of  loose  eggs  or  spores  would  then  be  contained  in 
a  cubic  millimetre  of  atmospheric  air  ? 

"What  will  be  the  outcome  of  this  giant's  struggle?" 
grandiloquently  wrote  an  editor  of  the  Moniteur  Scientifique 
(April,  i860).  Pouchet  answered  this  anonymous  writer 
by  advising  him  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  spontaneous 
generation  adopted  of  old  by  so  many  "men  of  genius." 
Pouchet's  principal  disciple  was  a  lover  of  science  and  of 
letters,  M.  Nicolas  Joly,  an  agrégé  of  natural  science,  doctor 
of  medicine,  and  professor  of  physiology  at  Toulouse.  He 
himself  had  a  pupil,  Charles  Musset,  who  was  preparing 
a  thesis  for  his  doctor's  degree  under  the  title  :  New  Experi- 
mental Researches  on  Heterogenia,  or  Spontaneous  Genera- 
tion. By  the  words  heterogenia  or  spontaneous  generation 
Joly  and  Musset  agreed  in  affirming  that  "  they  did  not 
mean  a  creation  out  of  nothing,  but  the  production  of  a 
new  organized  being,  lacking  parents,  and  of  which  the 
primordial  elements  are  drawn  from  ambient  organic 
matter." 

Thus  supported,  Pouchet  multiplied  objections  to  the 
views  of  Pasteur,  who  had  to  meet  every  argument. 
Pasteur  intended  to  narrow  more  and  more  the  sphere 
of  discussion.  It  was  an  ingenious  operation  to  take  the 
dusts  from  a  cotton- wool  filter,  to  disseminate  them  in  a 
liquid,  and  thus  to  determine  the  alteration  of  that  liquid  ; 
but  the  cotton  wool  itself  was  an  organic  substance  and 
might    be  suspected.     He  therefore  substituted    for    the 

123 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

cotton  wool  a  plug  of  asbestos  fibre,  a  mineral  substance. 
He  invented  little  glass  flasks  with  a  long  curved  neck  ; 
he  filled  them  with  an  alterable  liquid,  which  he  deprived 
of  germs  by  ebullition;  the  flask  was  in  communication 
with  the  outer  air  through  its  curved  tube,  but  the  atmo- 
spheric germs  were  deposited  in  the  curve  of  the  neck 
without  reaching  the  liquid  ;  in  order  that  alteration  should 
take  place,  the  vessel  had  to  be  inclined  until  the  point 
where  the  liquid  reached  the  dusts  in  the  neck. 

But  Pouchet  said,  "  How  could  germs  contained  in  the 
air  be  numerous  enough  to  develop  in  every  organic  in- 
fusion? Such  a  crowd  of  them  would  produce  a  thick 
mist  as  dense  as  iron."  Of  all  the  difficulties  this  last 
seemed  to  Pasteur  the  hardest  to  solve.  Could  it  not  be 
that  the  dissemination  of  germs  was  more  or  less  thick 
according  to  places?  "Then,"  cried  the  heterogenists, 
"  there  would  be  sterile  zones  and  fecund  zones,  a  most  con- 
venient hypothesis,  indeed!  "  Pasteur  let  them  laugh  whilst 
he  was  preparing  a  series  of  flasks  reserved  for  divers 
experiments.  If  spontaneous  generation  existed,  it  should 
invariably  occur  in  vessels  filled  with  the  same  alterable 
liquid.  "  Yet  it  is  ever  possible,"  affirmed  Pasteur,  "  to 
take  up  in  certain  places  a  notable  though  limited  volume 
of  ordinary  air,  having  been  submitted  to  no  physical  or 
chemical  change,  and  still  absolutely  incapable  of  produc- 
ing any  alteration  in  an  eminently  putrescible  liquor." 
He  was  ready  to  prove  that  nothing  was  easier  than  to 
increase  or  to  reduce  the  number  either  of  the  vessels 
where  productions  should  appear  or  of  the  vessels  where 
those  productions  should  be  lacking.  After  introducing 
into  a  series  of  flasks  of  a  capacity  of  250  cubic  centi- 
metres a  very  easily  corrupted  liquid,  such  as  yeast  water, 
he  submitted  each  flask  to  ebullition.    The  neck  of  those 

124 


I860-I864 

vessels  was  ended  off  in  a  vertical  point.  Whilst  the  liquid 
was  still  boiling,  he  closed,  with  an  enameller's  lamp,  the 
pointed  opening  through  which  the  steam  had  rushed  out, 
taking  with  it  all  the  air  contained  in  the  vessel.  Those 
flasks  were  indeed  calculated  to  satisfy  both  partisans  or 
adversaries  of  spontaneous  generation.  If  the  extremity  of 
the  neck  of  one  of  these  vessels  was  suddenly  broken,  all 
the  ambient  air  rushed  into  the  flask,  bringing  in  all 
the  suspended  dusts;  the  bulb  was  closed  again  at  once 
with  the  assistance  of  a  jet  of  flame.  Pasteur  could  then 
carry  it  away  and  place  it  in  a  temperature  of  25-30°  C, 
quite  suitable  for  the  development  of  germs  and  mucors. 

In  those  series  of  tests  some  flasks  show^ed  some  alteration, 
others  remained  pure,  according  to  the  place  where  the  air 
had  been  admitted.  During  the  beginning  of  the  year 
i860  Pasteur  broke  his  bulb  points  and  enclosed  ordinary 
air  in  many  different  places,  including  the  cellars  of  the 
Observatory  of  Paris.  There,  in  that  zone  of  an  invariable 
temperature,  the  absolutely  calm  air  could  not  be  compared 
to  the  air  he  gathered  in  the  yard  of  the  same  building. 
The  results  were  also  very  different:  out  of  ten  vessels 
opened  in  the  cellar,  closed  again  and  placed  in  the  stove, 
only  one  showed  any  alteration  ;  whilst  eleven  others, 
opened  in  the  yard,  all  yielded  organized  bodies. 

In  a  letter  to  his  father  (June,  i860),  Pasteur  wrote  :  "  I 
have  been  prevented  from  writing  by  my  experiments, 
which  continue  to  be  very  curious.  But  it  is  such  a  wide 
subject  that  I  have  almost  too  many  ideas  of  experiments. 
I  am  still  being  contradicted  by  two  naturalists,  M.  Pouchet 
of  Rouen  and  M.  Joly  of  Toulouse.  But  I  do  not  waste  my 
time  in  answering  them;  they  may  say  what  they  like, 
truth  is  on  my  side.  They  do  not  know  how  to  experiment; 
it  is  not  an  easy  art  ;  it  demands,  besides  certain  natural 

125 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

qualities,  a  long  practice  which  naturalists  have  not  gener- 
ally acquired  nowadays." 

When  the  long  vacation  approached,  Pasteur,  who  in- 
tended to  go  on  a  voyage  of  experiments,  laid  in  a  store  of 
glass  flasks.  He  wrote  to  Chappuis,  on  August  lo,  i860  : 
"  I  fear  from  your  letter  that  you  will  not  go  to  the  Alps 
this  year.  .  .  .  Besides  the  pleasure  of  having  you  for 
a  guide,  I  had  hoped  to  utilize  your  love  of  science  by 
offering  you  the  modest  part  of  curator.  It  is  by  some 
study  of  air  on  heights  afar  from  habitations  and  vegetation 
that  I  want  to  conclude  my  work  on  so-called  spontaneous 
generation.  The  real  interest  of  that  work  for  me  lies  in 
the  connection  of  this  subject  with  that  of  ferments  which 
I  shall  take  up  again  in  November." 

Pasteur  started  for  Arbois,  taking  with  him  seventy-three 
flasks  ;  he  opened  twenty  of  them  not  very  far  from  his 
father's  tannery,  on  the  road  to  Dole,  along  an  old  road, 
now  a  path  which  leads  to  the  mount  of  the  Bergère.  The 
vine  labourers  who  passed  him  wondered  what  this  holiday 
tourist  could  be  doing  with  all  those  little  phials  ;  no  one 
suspected  that  he  was  penetrating  one  of  nature's  greatest 
secrets.  "  What  would  you  have  ?  "  merrily  said  his  old 
friend,  Jules  Vercel  ;  "  it  amuses  him  !"  Of  those  twenty 
vessels,  opened  some  distance  away  from  any  dwelling, 
eight  yielded  organized  bodies. 

Pasteur  went  on  to  Salins  and  climbed  Mount  Poupet,  850 
metres  above  the  sea  level.  Out  of  twenty  vessels  opened, 
only  five  were  altered.  Pasteur  would  have  liked  to  charter 
a  balloon  in  order  to  prove  that  the  higher  you  go  the  fewer 
germs  you  find,  and  that  certain  zones  absolutely  pure  con- 
tain none  at  all.     It  was  easier  to  go  into  the  Alps. 

He  arrived  at  Chamonix  on  September  20,  and  engaged 
a  guide  to  make  the  ascent  of  the  Montanvert.    The  very 

126 


I860-I864 

next  morning,  this  novel  sort  of  expedition  started.  A 
mule  carried  the  case  of  thirty-three  vessels,  followed 
very  closely  by  Pasteur,  who  watched  over  the  precious 
burden  and  walked  alongside  of  precipices  supporting  the 
case  with  one  hand  so  that  it  should  not  be  shaken. 

When  the  first  experiments  were  started,  an  incident 
occurred.  Pasteur  has  himself  related  this  fact  in  his  re- 
port to  the  Académie.  "  In  order  to  close  again  the  point 
of  the  flasks  after  taking  in  the  air,  I  had  taken  with  me 
an  eolipyle  spirit  lamp.  The  dazzling  whiteness  of  the  ice  in 
the  sunlight  was  such  that  it  was  impossible  to  distinguish 
the  jet  of  burning  alcohol,  and  as  moreover  that  was  slightly 
moved  by  the  wind,  it  never  remained  on  the  broken  glass 
long  enough  to  hermetically  seal  my  vessel.  All  the  means 
I  might  have  employed  to  make  the  flame  visible  and  con- 
sequently directable  would  inevitably  have  given  rise  to 
causes  of  error  by  spreading  strange  dusts  into  the  air.  I 
was  therefore  obliged  to  bring  back  to  the  little  inn  of  Mon- 
tanvert,  unsealed,  the  flasks  which  I  had  opened  on  the 
glacier." 

The  inn  was  a  sort  of  hut,  letting  in  wind  and  rain. 
The  thirteen  open  vessels  were  exposed  to  all  the  dusts  in 
the  room  where  Pasteur  slept  ;  nearly  all  of  them  presented 
alterations. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  guide  was  sent  to  Chamonix  where 
a  tinker  undertook  to  modify  the  lamp  in  view  of  the  com- 
ing experiment. 

The  next  morning,  twenty  flasks,  which  have  remained 
celebrated  in  the  world  of  scientific  investigators,  were 
brought  to  the  Mer  de  Glace.  Pasteur  gathered  the  air 
with  infinite  precautions  ;  he  used  to  enjoy  relating  these 
details  to  those  people  who  call  everything  easy.  After 
tracing  with  a  steel  point  a  line  on  the  glass,  careful  lest 

127 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

dusts  should  become  a  cause  of  error,  he  began  by  heating 
the  neck  and  fine  point  of  the  bulb  in  the  flame  of  the  little 
spirit-lamp.  Then  raising  the  vessel  above  his  head,  he 
broke  the  point  with  steel  nippers,  the  long  ends  of  which 
had  also  been  heated  in  order  to  burn  the  dusts  which  might 
be  on  their  surface  and  which  would  have  been  driven  into 
the  vessel  by  the  quick  inrush  of  the  air.  Of  those  twenty 
flasks,  closed  again  immediately,  only  one  was  altered. 
"  If  all  the  results  are  compared  that  I  have  obtained 
until  now,"  he  wrote,  on  March  5,  1880,  when  relating  this 
journey  to  the  Académie,  "  it  seems  to  me  that  it  can  be 
aflirmed  that  the  dusts  suspended  in  atmospheric  air  are 
the  exclusive  origin,  the  necessary  condition  of  life  in 
infusions." 

And  in  an  unnoticed  little  sentence,  pointing  already 
then  to  the  goal  he  had  in  view,  "What  would  be  most 
desirable  would  be  to  push  those  studies  far  enough  to 
prepare  the  road  for  a  serious  research  into  the  origin  of 
various  diseases."  The  action  of  those  little  beings,  agents 
not  only  of  fermentation  but  also  of  disorganization  and 
putrefaction,  already  dawned  upon  him. 

While  Pasteur  was  going  from  the  Observatoire  cellars 
to  the  Mer  de  Glace,  Pouchet  was  gathering  air  on  the 
plains  of  Sicily,  making  experiments  on  Etna,  and  on  the 
sea.  He  saw  everywhere,  he  wrote,  "  air  equally  favour- 
able to  organic  genesis,  whether  surcharged  with  detritus 
in  the  midst  of  our  populous  cities,  or  taken  on  the  summit 
of  a  mountain,  or  on  the  sea,  where  it  offers  extreme 
purity.  With  a  cubic  decimetre  of  air,  taken  where  you 
like,  I  affirm  that  you  can  ever  produce  legions  of  micro- 
zoa." 

And  the  heterogenists  proclaimed  in  unison  that  "  every 
where,  strictly  everywhere,  air  is  constantly  favourable  to 

128 


I 860-1864 

life."  Those  who  followed  the  debate  nearly  all  leaned 
towards  Pouchet.  "  I  am  afraid,"  wrote  a  scientific  journal- 
ist in  La  Presse  (i860),  "  that  the  experiments  you  quote, 
M.  Pasteur,  will  turn  against  you.  .  .  .  The  world  into 
which  you  wish  to  take  us  is  really  too  fantastic.  ..." 

And  yet  some  adversaries  should  have  been  struck  by 
the  efforts  of  a  mind  which,  while  marching  forward  to 
establish  new  facts,  was  ever  seeking  arguments  against 
itself,  and  turned  back  to  strengthen  points  which  seemed 
yet  weak.  In  November,  Pasteur  returned  to  his  studies  on 
fermentations  in  general  and  lactic  fermentation  in  particu- 
lar. Endeavouring  to  bring  into  evidence  the  animated 
nature  of  the  lactic  ferment,  and  to  indicate  the  most  suit- 
able surroundings  for  the  self-development  of  that  ferment, 
he  had  come  across  some  complications  which  hampered 
the  purity  and  the  progress  of  that  culture.  Then  he  had 
perceived  another  fermentation,  following  upon  lactic  fer- 
mentation and  known  as  butyric  fermentation.  As  he  did 
not  immediately  perceive  the  origin  of  this  butyric  acid — 
which  causes  the  bad  smell  in  rancid  butter — he  ended  by 
being  struck  by  the  inevitable  coincidence  between  the 
(then  called)  infusory  animalculae  and  the  production  of 
this  acid. 

"  The  most  constantly  repeated  tests,"  he  wrote  in  Febru- 
ary, 186 1,  "have  convinced  me  that  the  transformation  of 
sugar,  mannite  and  lactic  acid  into  butyric  acid  is  due  ex- 
clusively to  those  Infusories,  and  they  must  be  considered 
as  the  real  butyric  ferment."  Those  vibriones  that  Pasteur 
described  as  under  the  shape  of  small  cylindric  rods  with 
rounded  ends,  sliding  about,  sometimes  in  a  chain  of  three 
or  four  articles,  he  sowed  in  an  appropriate  medium,  as  he 
sowed  beer  yeast.  But,  by  a  strange  phenomenon,  "  those 
infusory  animalculae,"  he  said,  "live  and  multiply  indefi- 

voL.  I.  129  K 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

nitely,  without  requiring  the  least  quantity  of  air.  And 
not  only  do  they  live  without  air,  but  air  actually  kills 
them.  It  is  sufficient  to  send  a  current  of  atmospheric  air 
during  an  hour  or  two  through  the  liquor  where  those 
vibriones  were  multiplying  to  cause  them  all  to  perish  and 
thus  to  arrest  butyric  fermentation,  whilst  a  current  of  pure 
carbonic  acid  gas  passing  through  that  same  liquor  hindered 
them  in  no  way.  Thence  this  double  proposition,"  concluded 
Pasteur  ;  '*  the  butyric  ferment  is  an  infusory  ;  that  infusory 
lives  without  free  oxygen."  He  afterwards  called  anae- 
robes those  beings  which  do  not  require  air,  in  opposition  to 
the  name  of  aerobes  given  to  other  microscopic  beings  who 
require  air  to  live. 

Biot,  without  knowing  all  the  consequences  of  these 
studies,  had  not  been  long  in  perceiving  that  he  had  been 
far  too  sceptical,  and  that  physiological  discoveries  of  the 
very  first  rank  would  be  the  outcome  of  researches  on 
so-called  spontaneous  generation.  He  would  have  wished, 
before  he  died,  not  only  that  Pasteur  should  be  the  unani- 
mously selected  candidate  for  the  1861  Zecker  prize  in  the 
Chemistry  Section,  but  also  that  his  friend,  forty-eight  years 
younger  than  himself,  should  be  a  member  of  the  Institute. 
At  the  beginning  of  186 1,  there  was  one  vacancy  in  the 
Botanical  Section.  Biot  took  advantage  of  the  researches 
pursued  by  Pasteur  within  the  last  three  years,  to  say  and 
to  print  that  he  should  be  nominated  as  a  candidate.  "  I 
can  hear  the  commonplace  objection:  he  is  a  chemist,  a 
physicist,  not  a  professional  botanist.  .  .  .  But  that  very 
versatility,  ever  active  and  ever  successful,  should  be  a  title 
in  his  favour.  .  .  .  Let  us  judge  of  men  by  their  works  and 
not  by  the  destination  more  or  less  wide  or  narrow  that 
they  have  marked  out  for  themselves.  Pasteur  made  his 
début  before  the  Académie  in  1848,  with  the  remarkable 

130 


I860-I864 

treatise  which  contained  by  implication  the  resolution  of  the 
paratartaric  acid  into  its  two  components,  right  and  left. 
He  was  then  twenty-six;  the  sensation  produced  is  not 
forgotten.  Since  then,  during  the  twelve  years  which 
followed,  he  has  submitted  to  your  appreciation  twenty-one 
papers,  the  last  ten  relating  to  vegetable  physiology.  All 
are  full  of  new  facts,  often  very  unexpected,  several  very 
far  reaching,  not  one  of  which  has  been  found  inaccurate 
by  competent  judges.  If  to-day,  by  your  suffrage,  you 
introduce  M.  Pasteur  into  the  Botanical  Section,  as  you 
might  safely  have  done  for  Théodore  de  Saussure  or  In- 
genhousz,  you  will  have  acquired  for  the  Académie  and 
for  that  particular  section  an  experimentalist  of  the  same 
order  as  those  two  great  men." 

Balard,  who  in  this  academic  campaign  made  common 
cause  with  Biot,  was  also  making  efforts  to  persuade 
several  members  of  the  Botanical  Section.  He  was  walk- 
ing one  day  in  the  Luxembourg  with  Moquin-Tandon, 
pouring  out,  in  his  rasping  voice,  arguments  in  favour  of 
Pasteur.  "  Well,"  said  Moquin-Tandon,  "  let  us  go  to 
Pasteur's,  and  if  you  find  a  botanical  work  in  his  library, 
I  shall  put  him  on  the  list."  It  was  a  witty  form  given  to 
the  scruples  of  the  botanists.  Pasteur  only  had  twenty-four 
votes  ;  Duchartre  was  elected. 

The  study  of  a  microscopic  fungus,  capable  by  itself  of 
transforming  wine  into  vinegar,  the  bringing  to  light  of 
the  action  of  that  mycoderma,  endowed  with  the  power  of 
taking  oxygen  from  air  and  fixing  it  upon  alcohol,  thus 
transforming  the  latter  into  acetic  acid  ;  the  most  ingenious 
experiments  to  demonstrate  the  absolute  and  exclusive 
power  of  the  little  plant,  all  gave  reason  to  Biot's  affirma- 
tion that  such  skill  in  the  observation  of  inferior  vegetables 
equalled  any  botanist's  claim.     Pasteur,  showing  that  the 

131 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

interpretations  of  the  causes  which  act  in  the  formation  of 
vinegar  were  false,  and  that  alone  the  microscopic  fungus 
did  everything,  was  constantly  dwelling  on  this  power  of 
the  infinitesimally  small.  " Mycoderma,"  he  said,  "can 
bring  the  action  of  combustion  of  the  oxygen  in  air  to  bear 
on  a  number  of  organic  materia.  If  microscopic  beings 
were  to  disappear  from  our  globe,  the  surface  of  the  earth 
would  be  encumbered  with  dead  organic  matter  and  corpses 
of  all  kinds,  animal  and  vegetable.  It  is  chiefly  they  who 
give  to  oxygen  its  powers  of  combustion.  Without  them,  life 
would  become  impossible  because  death  would  be  incomplete." 

Pasteur's  ideas  on  fermentation  and  putrefaction  were 
being  adopted  by  disciples  unknown  to  him.  "  I  am 
sending  you,"  he  wrote  to  his  father,  "  a  treatise  on 
fermentation,  which  was  the  subject  of  a  recent  competition 
at  the  Montpellier  Faculty.  This  work  is  dedicated  to  me 
by  its  author,  whom  I  do  not  know  at  all,  a  circumstance 
which  shows  that  my  results  are  spreading  and  exciting 
some  attention. 

"  I  have  only  read  the  last  pages,  which  have  pleased  me  ; 
if  the  rest  is  the  same,  it  is  a  very  good  résumé,  entirely 
conceived  in  the  new  direction  of  my  labours,  evidently 
well  understood  by  this  young  doctor. 

"  M.  Biot  is  very  well,  only  suffering  a  little  from  in- 
somnia. He  has,  fortunately  for  his  health,  finished  that 
great  account  of  my  former  results  which  will  be  the 
greatest  title  I  can  have  to  the  esteem  of  scientists." 

Biot  died  without  having  realized  his  last  wish,  which 
was  to  have  Pasteur  for  a  colleague.  It  was  only  at  the 
end  of  the  year  1862  that  Pasteur  was  nominated  by  the 
Mineralogical  section  for  the  seat  of  Senarmont.  This 
new  candidature  did  not  go  without  a  hitch.  In  his  study 
on  tartrates,  Pasteur,  as  will  be  remembered,  had  dis- 

132 


I860-I864 

covered  that  their  crystalline  forms  were  hemihedral. 
When  he  examined  the  characteristic  faces,  he  held  the 
crystal  in  a  particular  way  and  said:  "It  is  hemihedral  on 
the  right  side."  A  German  mineralogist,  named  Rammels- 
berg,  holding  the  crystal  in  the  opposite  direction,  said  :  "  It 
is  hemihedral  on  the  left  side."  It  was  a  mere  matter  of 
conventional  orientation;  nothing  was  changed  in  the 
scientific  results  announced  by  Pasteur.  But  some  ad- 
versaries made  a  weapon  of  that  inverted  crystal  ;  not  a 
dangerous  weapon,  thought  Pasteur  at  first,  fancying  that 
a  few  words  would  clear  the  misunderstanding.  But  the 
campaign  persisted,  with  insinuations,  murmurs,  whisper- 
ings. When  Pasteur  saw  this  simple  difference  in  the  way 
the  crystal  was  held  stigmatised  as  a  cause  of  error,  he 
desired  to  cut  short  this  quarrel  made  in  Germany.  He 
then  had  with  him  no  longer  Raulin,  but  M.  Duclaux, 
who  was  beginning  his  scientific  life.  M.  Duclaux  re- 
members one  day  when  Pasteur,  seeing  that  incontro- 
vertible arguments  were  required,  sent  for  a  cabinet  maker 
with  his  tools.  He  superintended  the  making  of  a  complete 
wooden  set  of  the  crystalline  forms  of  tartrates,  a  gigantic 
set,  such  as  Gulliver  might  have  seen  in  Brobdingnag  if 
he  had  studied  geometrical  forms  in  that  island.  A  coating 
of  coloured  paper  finished  the  work;  green  paper  marked 
the  hemihedral  face.  A  member  of  the  Philomathic  Society, 
Pasteur  asked  the  Society  to  give  up  the  meeting  of  Novem- 
ber 8,  1862,  to  the  discussion  of  that  subject.  Several  of 
his  colleagues  vainly  endeavoured  to  dissuade  him  from 
that  intention  ;  Pasteur  hearkened  to  no  one.  He  took  with 
him  his  provision  of  wooden  crystals,  and  gave  a  vivid  and 
impassioned  lecture.  "  If  you  know  the  question,"  he  asked 
his  adversaries,  "  where  is  your  conscience?  If  you  know 
it    not,  why    meddle    with  it?"     And  with  one  of  his 

133 


THE   LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

accustomed  sudden  turns,  "  What  is  all  this  ?"  he  added. 
"  One  of  those  incidents  to  which  we  all,  more  or  less,  are 
exposed  by  the  conditions  of  our  career  ;  no  bitterness  re- 
mains behind.  Of  what  account  is  it  in  the  presence  of 
those  mysteries,  so  varied,  so  numerous,  that  we  all,  in  divers 
directions,  are  working  to  clear?  It  is  true  I  have  had 
recourse  to  an  unusual  means  of  defending  myself  against 
attacks  not  openly  published,  but  I  think  that  means  was 
safe  and  loyal,  and  deferential  towards  you.  And,"  he 
added,  thinking  of  Biot  and  Senarmont,  "will  you  have 
my  full  confession  ?  You  know  that  I  had  during  fifteen 
years  the  inestimable  advantage  of  the  intercourse  of  two 
men  who  are  no  more,  but  whose  scientific  probity  shone 
as  one  of  the  beacons  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences.  Before 
deciding  on  the  course  I  have  now  followed,  I  questioned 
my  memory  and  endeavoured  to  revive  their  advice,  and 
it  seemed  to  me  that  they  would  not  have  disowned  me." 

M.  Duclaux  said  about  this  meeting  :  "  Pasteur  has  since 
then  won  many  oratorical  victories.  I  do  not  know  of 
a  greater  one  than  that  deserved  by  that  acute  and 
penetrating  improvisation.  He  was  still  much  heated  as 
we  were  walking  back  to  the  Rue  d'Ulm,  and  I  remember 
making  him  laugh  by  asking  him  why,  in  the  state  of  mind 
he  was  in,  he  had  not  concluded  by  hurling  his  wooden 
crystals  at  his  adversaries'  heads." 

On  December  8,  1862,  Pasteur  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  Académie  des  Sciences;  out  of  sixty  voters  he 
received  thirty-six  suffrages. 

The  next  morning,  when  the  gates  of  the  Montparnasse 
cemetery  were  opened,  a  woman  walked  towards  Biot's  grave 
with  her  hands  full  of  flowers.  It  was  Mme.  Pasteur  who 
was  bringing  them  to  him  who  lay  there  since  February  5, 
1862,  and  who  had  loved  Pasteur  with  so  deep  an  affection. 

134 


I860-I864 

A  letter  picked  up  at  a  sale  of  autographs,  one  of  the  last 
Biot  wrote,  gives  a  finishing  touch  to  his  moral  portrait. 
It  is  addressed  to  an  unknown  person  discouraged  with  this 
life.  "  Sir,— The  confidence  you  honour  me  with  touches 
me.  But  I  am  not  a  physician  of  souls.  However,  in  my 
opinion,  you  could  not  do  better  than  seek  remedies  to  your 
moral  suffering  in  work,  religion,  and  charity.  A  useful 
work  taken  up  with  energy  and  persevered  in  will  revive 
by  occupation  the  forces  of  your  mind.  Religious  feelings 
will  console  you  by  inspiring  you  with  patience.  Charity 
manifested  to  others  will  soften  your  sorrows  and  teach 
you  that  you  are  not  alone  to  suffer  in  this  life.  Look 
around  you,  and  you  will  see  afflicted  ones  more  to  be  pitied 
than  yourself.  Try  to  ease  their  sufferings  ;  the  good  you 
will  do  to  them  will  fall  back  upon  yourself  and  will  show 
you  that  a  life  which  can  thus  be  employed  is  not  a  burden 
which  cannot,  which  must  not  be  borne." 

On  his  entering  the  Académie  des  Sciences,  Balard  and 
Dumas  advised  Pasteur  to  let  alone  his  wooden  crystals  and 
to  continue  his  studies  on  ferments.  He  undertook  to 
demonstrate  that  "  the  hypothesis  of  a  phenomenon  of  mere 
contact  is  not  more  admissible  than  the  opinion  which 
placed  the  ferment  character  exclusively  in  dead  albuminoid 
matter."  Whilst  continuing  his  researches  on  beings  which 
could  live  without  air,  he  tried,  as  he  went  along,  à  propos 
of  spontaneous  generation,  to  find  some  weak  point  in  his 
work.  Until  now  the  liquids  he  had  used,  however  alterable 
they  were,  had  been  brought  up  to  boiling  point.  Was 
there  not  some  new  and  decisive  experiment  to  make? 
Could  he  not  study  organic  matter  as  constituted  by  life 
and  expose  to  the  contact  of  air  deprived  of  its  germs  some 
fresh  liquids,  highly  putrescible,  such  as  blood  and  urine  ? 
Claude  Bernard,  joining  in  these  experiments  of  Pasteur's, 

135 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

himself  took  some  blood  from  a  dog.  This  blood  was  sealed 
up  in  a  glass  phial,  with  every  condition  of  purity,  and  the 
phial  remained  in  a  stove  constantly  heated  up  to  30°  C. 
from  March  3  until  April  20,  1862,  when  Pasteur  laid  it 
on  the  Académie  table.  The  blood  had  suffered  no  sort  of 
putrefaction;  neither  had  some  urine  treated  in  the  same 
way.  '•  The  conclusions  to  which  I  have  been  led  by  my  first 
series  of  experiments,  said  Pasteur  before  the  Académie, 
are  therefore  applicable  in  all  cases  to  organic  substances." 

While  studying  putrefaction,  which  is  itself  but  a  fer- 
mentation applied  to  animal  materia,  while  showing  the 
marvellous  power  of  the  infinitesimally  small,  he  foresaw 
the  immensity  of  the  domain  he  had  conquered,  as  will  be 
proved  by  the  following  incident.  Some  time  after  the 
Académie  election,  in  March,  1863,  the  Emperor,  who  took 
an  interest  in  all  that  took  place  in  the  small  laboratory  of 
the  Rue  d'Ulm,  desired  to  speak  with  Pasteur.  J.  B.  Dumas 
claimed  the  privilege  of  presenting  his  former  pupil,  and 
the  interview  took  place  at  the  Tuileries.  Napoleon 
questioned  Pasteur  with  a  gentle,  slightly  dreamy  insistence. 
Pasteur  wrote  the  next  day  :  "  I  assured  the  Emperor  that 
all  my  ambition  was  to  arrive  at  the  knowledge  of  the 
causes  of  putrid  and  contagious  diseases." 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  chapter  on  ferments  was  not  yet 
closed  ;  Pasteur  was  attracted  by  studies  on  wine.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  1863  holidays,  just  before  starting  for 
Arbois,  he  drew  up  this  programme  with  one  of  his 
pupils  :  "  From  the  20th  to  the  30th  (August)  preparation 
in  Paris  of  all  the  vessels,  apparatus,  products,  that  we 
must  take.  September  i,  departure  for  the  Jura  ; 
installation  ;  purchase  of  the  products  of  a  vineyard. 
Immediate  beginning  of  tests  of  all  kinds.  We  shall  have 
to  hurry;  grapes  do  not  keep  long." 

136 


i86o~i864 

Whilst  he  was  preparing  this  vintage  tour,  which  he 
intended  to  make  with  three  "Normaliens,"  Duclaux, 
Gernez  and  Lechartier,  the  three  heterogenists,  Pouchet, 
Joly  and  Musset  proposed  to  use  that  same  time  in  fighting 
Pasteur  on  his  own  ground.  They  started  from  Bagnères- 
de-Luchon  followed  by  several  guides  and  taking  with 
them  all  kinds  of  provisions  and  some  little  glass  flasks  with 
a  slender  pointed  neck.  They  crossed  the  pass  of  Venasque 
without  incident,  and  decided  to  go  further,  to  the  Rencluse. 
Some  isard-stalkers  having  come  towards  the  strange- 
looking  party,  they  were  signalled  away  ;  even  the  guides 
were  invited  to  stand  aside.  It  was  necessary  to  prevent 
any  dusts  from  reaching  the  bulbs,  which  were  thus  opened 
at  8  p.m.  at  a  height  of  2,083  metres.  But  eighty- three  metres 
higher  than  the  Montanvert  did  not  seem  to  them  enough,  they 
wished  to  go  higher.  "We  shall  sleep  on  the  mountain," 
said  the  three  scientists.  Fatigue  and  bitter  cold,  they 
withstood  everything  with  the  courage  inspired  by  a 
problem  to  solve.  The  next  morning  they  climbed  across 
that  rocky  chaos,  and  at  last  reached  the  foot  of  one  of  the 
greatest  glaciers  of  the  Maladetta,  3,000  metres  above  the 
sea-level.  "A  very  deep,  narrow  crevasse,"  says  Pouchet, 
"  seemed  to  us  the  most  suitable  place  for  our  experiments." 
Four  phials  (filled  with  a  decoction  of  hay)  were  opened  and 
sealed  again  with  precautions  that  Pouchet  considered  as 
exaggerated. 

Pouchet,  in  his  merely  scientific  report,  does  not  relate 
the  return  journey,  yet  more  perilous  than  the  ascent.  At 
one  of  the  most  dangerous  places,  Joly  slipped,  and  would 
have  rolled  into  a  precipice,  but  for  the  strength  and  presence 
of  mind  of  one  of  the  guides.  All  three  at  last  came  back 
to  Luchon,  forgetful  of  dangers  run,  and  glorying  at  having 
reached  i  ,000  metres  higher  than  Pasteur.    They  triumphed 

137 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

when  they  saw  alteration  in  their  flasks  !  "  Therefore," 
said  Pouchet,  "the  air  of  the  Maladetta,  and  of  high 
mountains  in  general,  is  not  incapable  of  producing 
alteration  in  an  eminently  putrescible  liquor;  therefore 
heterogenia,  or  the  production  of  a  new  being  devoid  of 
parents,  but  formed  at  the  expense  of  ambient  organic 
matter,  is  for  us  a  reality." 

The  Academy  of  Sciences  was  taking  more  and  more 
interest  in  this  debate.  In  November,  1863,  Joly  and  Musset 
expressed  a  wish  that  the  Academy  should  appoint  a 
Commission,  before  whom  the  principal  experiments  of 
Pasteur  and  of  his  adversaries  should  be  repeated.  On  this 
occasion  Flourens  expressed  his  opinion  thus  :  "I  am 
blamed  in  certain  quarters  for  giving  no  opinion  on  the 
question  of  spontaneous  generation.  As  long  as  my  opinion 
was  not  formed,  I  had  nothing  to  say.  It  is  now  formed, 
and  I  give  it:  M.  Pasteur's  experiments  are  decisive.  If 
spontaneons  generation  is  real,  what  is  required  to  obtain 
animalculse  ?  Air  and  putrescible  liquor.  M.  Pasteur  puts 
air  and  putrescible  liquor  together  and  nothing  happens. 
Therefore  spontaneous  generation  is  not.  To  doubt  further 
is  to  misunderstand  the  question." 

Already  in  the  preceding  year,  the  Académie  itself  had 
evidenced  its  opinion  by  giving  Pasteur  the  prize  of 
a  competition  proposed  in  these  terms  :  '*  To  attempt  to 
throw  some  new  light  upon  the  question  of  so-called 
spontaneous  generation  by  well-conducted  experiments." 
Pasteiu*'s  treatise  on  Organized  Corpuscles  existing  in 
Atmosphere  had  been  unanimously  preferred.  Pasteur 
might  have  entrenched  himself  behind  the  suffrages  of  the 
Academy,  but  begged  it,  in  order  to  close  those  incessant 
debates,  to  appoint  the  Commission  demanded  by  Joly  and 
Musset. 

138 


I860-I864 

The  members  of  the  Commission  were  Flourens,  Dumas, 
Brongniart,  Milne-Edwards,  and  Balard.  Pasteur  wished 
that  the  discussion  should  take  place  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
it  was  fixed  for  the  first  fortnight  in  March.  But  Pouchet, 
Joly  and  Musset  asked  for  a  delay  on  account  of  the  cold. 
"  We  consider  that  it  might  compromise,  perhaps  prevent, 
our  results,  to  operate  in  a  temperature  which  often  goes 
below  zero  even  in  the  south  of  France.  How  do  we  know 
that  it  will  not  freeze  in  Paris  between  the  first  and  the 
fifteenth  of  March  ?  They  even  asked  the  Commission  to 
adjourn  experiments  until  the  summer.  "  I  am  much 
surprised,"  wrote  Pasteur,  "  at  the  delay  sought  by  Messrs. 
Pouchet,  Joly  and  Musset  ;  it  would  have  been  easy  with  a 
stove  to  raise  the  temperature  to  the  degree  required  by 
those  gentlemen.  For  my  part  I  hasten  to  assure  the 
Academy  that  I  am  at  its  disposal,  and  that  in  summer,  or 
in  any  other  season,  I  am  ready  to  repeat  my  experi- 
ments." 

Some  evening  scientific  lectures  had  just  been  inaugurated 
at  the  Sorbonne  ;  such  a  subject  as  spontaneous  generation 
was  naturally  on  the  programme.  When  Pasteur  entered 
the  large  lecture  room  of  the  Sorbonne,  on  April  7,  1864, 
he  must  have  been  reminded  of  the  days  of  his  youth,  when 
crowds  came,  as  to  a  theatrical  performance,  to  hear  J.  B. 
Dumas  speak.  Diunas'  pupil,  now  a  master,  in  his  turn 
found  a  still  greater  crowd  invading  every  corner.  Amongst 
the  professors  and  students,  such  celebrities  as  Duruy, 
Alexandre  Dumas  senior,  George  Sand,  Princess  Mathilde, 
were  being  pointed  out.  Around  them,  the  inevitable 
"smart"  people  who  must  see  everything  and  be  seen 
everywhere,  without  whom  no  function  favoured  by  fashion 
would  be  complete  ;  in  short  what  is  known  as  the  "  Tout 
Paris."    But  this  "  Tout  Paris  "  was  about  to  receive  a  novel 

139 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

impression,  probably  a  lasting  one.  The  man  who  stood 
before  this  fashionable  audience  was  not  one  of  those 
speakers  who  attempt  by  an  insinuating  exordium  to  gain 
the  good  graces  of  their  hearers  ;  it  was  a  grave-looking 
man,  his  face  full  of  quiet  energy  and  reflective  force.  He 
began  in  a  deep,  firm  voice,  evidently  earnestly  convinced 
of  the  greatness  of  his  mission  as  a  teacher  :  "  Great  prob- 
lems are  now  being  handled,  keeping  every  thinking  man 
in  suspense  ;  the  unity  or  multiplicity  of  human  races  ;  the 
creation  of  man  i,ooo  years  or  i,ooo  centuries  ago;  the 
fixity  of  species,  or  the  slow  and  progressive  transformation 
of  one  species  into  another  ;  the  eternity  of  matter  ;  the  idea 
of  a  God  unnecessary.  Such  are  some  of  the  questions  that 
humanity  discusses  nowadays." 

He  had  now,  he  continued,  entered  upon  a  subject  ac- 
cessible to  experimentation,  and  which  he  had  made  the 
object  of  the  strictest  and  most  conscientious  studies.  Can 
matter  organize  itself?  Can  living  beings  come  into  the 
world  without  having  been  preceded  by  beings  similar  to 
them  ?  After  showing  that  the  doctrine  of  spontaneous 
generation  had  gradually  lost  ground,  he  explained  how  the 
invention  of  the  microscope  had  caused  it  to  reappear  at 
the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  "  in  the  face  of  those 
beings,  so  numerous,  so  varied,  so  strange  in  their  shapes, 
the  origin  of  which  was  connected  with  the  presence  of  all 
dead  vegetable  and  animal  matter  in  a  state  of  disorganiza- 
tion." He  went  on  to  say  how  Pouchet  had  taken  up  this 
study,  and  to  point  out  the  errors  that  this  new"  partisan  of 
an  old  doctrine  had  committed,  errors  difficult  to  recognize 
at  first.  With  perfect  clearness  and  simplicity,  Pasteur  ex- 
plained how  the  dusts  which  are  suspended  in  air  contain 
germs  of  inferior  organized  beings  and  how  a  liquid  pre- 
served, by  certain  precautions,  from  the  contact  of  these 

140 


I860-I864 

germs  can  be  kept  indefinitely,  giving   his  audience    a 
glimpse  of  his  laboratory  methods. 

"  Here,"  he  said,  "  is  an  infusion  of  organic  matter,  as 
limpid  as  distilled  water,  and  extremely  alterable.  It  has 
been  prepared  to-day.  To-morrow  it  will  contain  animal- 
culae,  little  infusories,  or  flakes  of  mouldiness. 

"  I  place  a  portion  of  that  infusion  into  a  flask  with  a 
long  neck,  like  this  one.  Suppose  I  boil  the  liquid  and  leave 
it  to  cool.  After  a  few  days,  mouldiness  or  animalculae  will 
develop  in  the  liquid.  By  boiling,  I  destroyed  any  germs 
contained  in  the  liquid  or  against  the  glass  ;  but  that  infu- 
sion being  again  in  contact  with  air,  it  becomes  altered,  as 
all  infusions  do.  Now  suppose  I  repeat  this  experiment, 
but  that,  before  boiling  the  liquid,  I  draw  (by  means  of  an 
enameller's  lamp)  the  neck  of  the  flask  into  a  point,  leaving 
however,  its  extremity  open.  This  being  done,  I  boil  the 
liquid  in  the  flask,  and  leave  it  to  cool.  Now  the  liquid 
of  this  second  flask  will  remain  pure  not  only  two  days, 
a  month,  a  year,  but  three  or  four  years — for  the  ex- 
periment I  am  telling  you  about  is  already  four  years 
old,  and  the  liquid  remains  as  limpid  as  distilled  water. 
What  difference  is  there,  then,  between  those  two  vases  ? 
They  contain  the  same  liquid,  they  both  contain  air,  both 
are  open  !  Why  does  one  decay  and  the  other  remain  pure  ? 
The  only  difference  between  them  is  this  :  in  the  first  case, 
the  dusts  suspended  in  air  and  their  germs  can  fall  into  the 
neck  of  the  flask  and  arrive  into  contact  with  the  liquid, 
where  they  find  appropriate  food  and  develop;  thence 
microscopic  beings.  In  the  second  flask,  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  impossible,  or  at  le^t  extremely  difficult,  unless  air  is 
violently  shaken,  that  dusts  suspended  in  air  should  enter 
the  vase  ;  they  fall  on  its  curved  neck.  When  air  goes  in 
and  out  of  the  vase  through  diffusions  or  variations  of  tem- 

141 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

perature,  the  latter  never  being  sudden,  the  air  comes  in 
slowly  enough  to  drop  the  dusts  and  germs  that  it  carries 
at  the  opening  of  the  neck  or  in  the  first  curves. 

"  This  experiment  is  full  of  instruction  ;  for  this  must  be 
noted,  that  everything  in  air  save  its  dusts  can  easily  enter 
the  vase  and  come  into  contact  with  the  liquid.  Imagine 
what  you  choose  in  the  air — electricity,  magnetism,  ozone, 
unknown  forces  even,  all  can  reach  the  infusion.  Only  one 
thing  cannot  enter  easily,  and  that  is  dust,  suspended  in  air. 
And  the  proof  of  this  is  that  if  I  shake  the  vase  violently 
two  or  three  times,  in  a  few  days  it  contains  animalculae 
or  mouldiness.  Why  ?  because  air  has  come  in  violently 
enough  to  carry  dust  with  it. 

"  And,  therefore,  gentlemen,  I  could  point  to  that  liquid 
and  say  to  you,  I  have  taken  my  drop  of  water  from  the 
immensity  of  creation,  and  I  have  taken  it  full  of  the  ele- 
ments appropriated  to  the  development  of  inferior  beings. 
And  I  wait,  I  watch,  I  question  it,  begging  it  to  recommence 
for  me  the  beautiful  spectacle  of  the  first  creation.  But  it 
is  dumb,  dumb  since  these  experiments  were  begun  several 
years  ago  ;  it  is  dumb  because  I  have  kept  it  from  the  only 
thing  man  cannot  produce,  from  the  germs  which  float  in 
the  air,  from  Life,  for  Life  is  a  germ  and  a  germ  is  Life. 
Never  will  the  doctrine  of  spontaneous  generation  recover 
from  the  mortal  blow  of  this  simple  experiment." 

The  public  enthusiastically  applauded  these  words,  which 
ended  the  lecture  : 

"  No,  there  is  now  no  circumstance  known  in  which  it 
can  be  afiirmed  that  microscopic  beings  came  into  the  world 
without  germs,  without  parents  similar  to  themselves. 
Those  who  affirm  it  have  been  duped  by  illusions,  by  ill- 
conducted  experiments,  spoilt  by  errors  that  they  either  did 
not  perceive  or  did  not  know  how  to  avoid." 

142 


I860-I864 

In  the  meanwhile,  besides  public  lectures  and  new  studies, 
Pasteur  succeeded  in  "  administering  "  the  Ecole  Normale 
in  the  most  complete  sense  of  the  word.  His  influence  was 
such  that  students  acquired  not  a  taste  but  a  passion  for 
study  ;  he  directed  each  one  in  his  own  line,  he  awakened 
their  instincts.  It  was  already  through  his  wise  inspiration 
that  five  "Normaliens  agrégés  "  should  have  the  chance  of 
the  five  curators'  places  ;  but  his  solicitude  did  not  stop 
there.  If  some  disappointment  befell  some  former  pupil, 
still  in  that  period  of  youth  which  doubts  nothing  or  nobody, 
he  came  vigorously  to  his  assistance  ;  he  was  the  counsellor 
of  the  future.  A  few  letters  will  show  how  he  understood 
his  responsibility. 

A  Normalien,  Paul  Dalimier,  received  ist  at  the  agré- 
gation of  Physics  in  1858,  afterwards  Natural  History 
curator  at  the  Ecole,  and  who,  having  taken  his  doctor's 
degree,  asked  to  be  sent  to  a  Faculty,  was  ordered  to  go  to 
the  Lycée  of  Chaumont. 

In  the  face  of  this  almost  disgrace  he  wrote  a  despairing 
letter  to  Pasteur.  He  could  do  nothing  more,  he  said,  his 
career  was  ruined,  "  My  dear  Sir,"  answered  Pasteur,  "  I 
much  regret  that  I  could  not  see  you  before  your  departure 
for  Chaumont.  But  here  is  the  advice  which  I  feel  will  be 
useful  to  you.  Do  not  manifest  your  just  displeasure  ;  but 
attract  attention  from  the  very  first  by  your  zeal  and  talent. 
In  a  word,  aggravate,  by  your  fine  discharge  of  your  new 
duties,  the  injustice  which  has  been  committed.  The  dis- 
couragement expressed  in  your  last  letter  is  not  worthy  of 
a  man  of  science.  Keep  but  three  objects  before  your  eyes  : 
your  class,  your  pupils  and  the  work  you  have  begun  .  .  . 
Do  your  duty  to  the  best  of  your  ability,  without  troubling 
about  the  rest." 

Pasteur  undertook  the  rest  himself.    He  went   to  the 

143 


THE   LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Ministry  to  complain  of  the  injustice  and  unfairness,  from 
a  general  point  of  view,  of  that  nomination. 

"  Sir,"  answered  the  Chaumont  exile,  "  I  have  received 
your  kind  letter.  My  deep  respect  for  every  word  of  yours 
will  guarantee  my  intention  to  follow  your  advice.  I  have 
given  myself  up  entirely  to  my  class.  I  have  found  here  a 
Physics  cabinet  in  a  deplorable  state,  and  I  have  undertaken 
to  reorganize  it." 

He  had  not  time  to  finish  :  justice  was  done,  and  Paul 
Dalimier  was  made  maître  des  conférences  at  the  Ecole  Nor- 
male.   He  died  at  twenty-eight. 

The  wish  that  masters  and  pupils  should  remain  in  touch 
with  each  other  after  the  three  years  at  the  Ecole  Normale 
had  already  in  1859  inspired  Pasteur  to  write  a  report  on 
the  desirableness  of  an  annual  report  entitled.  Scientific 
Annals  of  the  Ecole  Normale. 

The  initiative  of  pregnant  ideas  often  is  traced  back  to 
France.  But,  through  want  of  tenacity,  she  allows  those 
same  ideas  to  fall  into  decay  and  they  are  taken  up  by  other 
nations,  transplanted,  developed,  until  they  come  back  un- 
recognized to  their  mother  country.  Germany  had  seen 
the  possibilities  of  such  a  publication  as  Pasteur's  projected 
Annals.  Renan  wrote  about  that  time  to  the  editors  of  the 
Revue  Germanique^  a  Review  intended  to  draw  France  and 
Germany  together:  "In  France,  nothing  is  made  public 
until  achieved  and  ripened.  In  Germany,  a  work  is  given 
out  provisionally,  not  as  a  teaching,  but  as  an  incitement 
to  think,  as  a  ferment  for  the  mind." 

Pasteur  felt  all  the  power  of  that  intellectual  ferment. 
In  the  volume  entitled  Centenary  of  the  Ecole  Normale^  M. 
Gernez  has  recalled  Pasteur's  enthusiasm  when  he  spoke  of 
those  Ammls.     Was  it  not  for  former  pupils,  away  in  the 

144 


I860-I864 

provinces,  a  means  of  collaborating  with  their  old  masters 
and  of  keeping  in  touch  with  Paris  ? 

It  was  in  June,  1864,  that  Pasteur  presented  the  first 
number  of  this  publication  to  the  Académie  des  Sciences. 
M.  Gernez,  who  was  highly  thought  of  by  Pasteur,  has  not 
related  in  the  Centenary  that  the  book  opened  with  some  of 
his  own  researches  on  the  rotatory  power  of  certain  liquids 
and  their  steam. 

At  that  same  time,  the  heterogenists  had  at  last  placed 
themselves  at  the  disposal  of  the  Académie  and  were  invited 
to  meet  Pasteur  before  the  Natural  History  Commission  at 
M.  Chevreul's  laboratory.  "  I  affirm,"  said  Pasteur,  *' that 
in  any  place  it  is  possible  to  take  up  from  the  ambient 
atmosphere  a  determined  volume  of  air  containing  neither 
egg  nor  spore  and  producing  no  generation  in  putrescible 
solutions."  The  Commission  declared  that,  the  whole  con- 
test bearing  upon  one  simple  fact,  one  experiment  only 
should  take  place.  The  heterogenists  wanted  to  recom- 
mence a  whole  series  of  experiments,  thus  reopening  the 
discussion.  The  Commission  refused,  and  the  heterogenists, 
unwilling  to  concede  the  point,  retired  from  the  field,  repu- 
diating the  arbiters  that  they  had  themselves  chosen. 

And  yet  Joly  had  written  to  the  Académie,  "  If  one  only 
of  our  flasks  remains  pure,  we  will  loyally  own  our  defeat." 
A  scientist  who  later  became  Permanent  Secretary  of  the 
Académie  des  Sciences,  Jamin,  wrote  about  this  conflict  : 
"  The  heterogenists,  however  they  may  have  coloured  their 
retreat,  have  condemned  themselves.  If  they  had  been  sure 
of  the  fact — which  they  had  solemnly  engaged  to  prove 
or  to  own  themselves  vanquished, — they  would  have  insisted 
on  showing  it,  it  would  have  been  the  triumph  of  their 
doctrine." 

The  heterogenists  appealed  to  the  public.    A  few  days 

VOL.  I.  145  L 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

after  their  defeat,  Joly  gave  a  lecture  at  the  Faculty  of 
Medicine.  He  called  the  trial,  as  decided  on  by  the  Com- 
mission, a  "circus  competition";  he  was  applauded  by 
those  who  saw  other  than  scientific  questions  in  the  matter. 
The  problem  was  now  coming  down  from  mountains  and 
laboratories  into  the  arena  of  society  discussions.  If  all 
comes  from  a  germ,  people  said,  whence  came  the  first 
germ  ?  We  must  bow  before  that  mystery,  said  Pasteur  ; 
it  is  the  question  of  the  origin  of  all  things,  and  absolutely 
outside  the  domain  of  scientific  research.  But  an  invincible 
curiosity  exists  amongst  most  men  which  cannot  admit 
that  science  should  have  the  wisdom  to  content  itself  with 
the  vast  space  between  the  beginning  of  the  world  and  the 
unknown  future.  Many  people  transform  a  question  of 
fact  into  a  question  of  faith.  Though  Pasteur  had  brought 
into  his  researches  a  solely  scientific  preoccupation,  many 
people  approved  or  blamed  him  as  the  defender  of  a  reli- 
gious cause. 

Vainly  had  he  said,  "There  is  here  no  question  of  re- 
ligion, philosophy,  atheism,  materialism,  or  spiritualism.  I 
might  even  add  that  they  do  not  matter  to  me  as  a  scientist. 
It  is  a  question  of  fact  ;  when  I  took  it  up  I  was  as  ready 
to  be  convinced  by  experiments  that  spontaneous  genera- 
tion exists  as  I  am  now  persuaded  that  those  who  believe 
it  are  blindfolded." 

It  might  have  been  thought  that  Pasteur's  arguments 
were  in  support  of  a  philosophical  theory!  It  seemed  im- 
possible to  those  whose  ideas  came  from  an  ardent  faith, 
from  the  influence  of  their  surroundings,  from  personal 
pride  or  from  interested  calculations  to  understand  that 
a  man  should  seek  truth  for  its  own  sake  and  with  no 
other  object  than  to  proclaim  it.  Hostilities  were  opened, 
journalists  kept  up  the  fire.     A  priest,  the  Abbé  Moigno 

146 


I860-I864 

spoke  of  converting  unbelievers  through  the  proved 
non-existence  of  spontaneous  generation.  The  celebrated 
novelist,  Edmond  About,  took  up  Pouchet's  cause  with 
sparkling  irony.  "M.  Pasteur  preached  at  the  Sorbonne 
amidst  a  concert  of  applause  which  must  have  gladdened 
the  angels." 

Thus,  among  the  papers  and  reviews  of  that  time  we 
can  follow  the  divers  ideas  brought  out  by  these  discussions. 
Guizot,  then  almost  eighty,  touched  on  this  problem  with 
the  slightly  haughty  assurance  of  one  conscious  of  having 
given  much  thought  to  his  beliefs  and  destiny.  "  Man  has 
not  been  formed  through  spontaneous  generation,  that  is 
by  a  creative  and  organizing  force  inherent  in  matter; 
scientific  observation  daily  overturns  that  theory,  by  which, 
moreover,  it  is  impossible  to  explain  the  first  appearance 
upon  the  earth  of  man  in  his  complete  state."  And  he 
praised  "  M.  Pasteur,  who  has  brought  into  this  question 
the  light  of  his  scrupulous  criticism." 

Nisard  was  a  wondering  witness  of  what  took  place 
in  the  small  laboratory  of  the  Ecole  Normale.  Ever  pre- 
occupied by  the  relations  between  science  and  religion, 
he  heard  with  some  surprise  Pasteur  saying  modestly, 
"  Researches  on  primary  causes  are  not  in  the  domain  of 
Science,  which  only  recognizes  facts  and  phenomena  which 
it  can  demonstrate." 

Pasteur  did  not  disinterest  himself  from  the  great  prob- 
lems which  he  called  the  eternal  subjects  of  men's  solitary 
meditations.  But  he  did  not  admit  the  interference  of 
religion  with  science  any  more  than  that  of  science  with 
religion. 

His  eagerness  during  a  conflict  was  only  equalled  by  his 
absolute  forgetfulness  after  the  conflict  was  over.  He 
answered  some  one  who,  years  later,  reminded  him  of  that 

147 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

past  so  full  of  attacks  and  praises.  "  A  man  of  science 
should  think  of  what  will  be  said  of  him  in  the  following 
century,  not  of  the  insults  or  the  compliments  of  one  day," 

Pasteur,  anxious  to  regain  lost  time,  hurried  to  return 
to  his  studies  on  wine.  "  Might  not  the  diseases  of  wines," 
he  said  at  the  Académie  des  Sciences  in  January,  1864,  "  be 
caused  by  organized  ferments,  microscopic  vegetations,  of 
which  the  germs  would  develop  when  certain  circum- 
stances of  temperature,  of  atmospheric  variations,  of 
exposure  to  air,  would  favour  their  evolution  or  their 
introduction  into  wines?  ...  I  have  indeed  reached 
this  result  that  the  alterations  of  wines  are  co-existent 
with  the  presence  and  multiplication  of  microscopic  vege- 
tations." Acid  wines,  bitter  wines,  "ropy"  wines,  sour 
wines,  he  had  studied  them  all  with  a  microscope,  his  surest 
guide  in  recognizing  the  existence  and  form  of  the  evil. 

As  he  had  more  particularly  endeavoured  to  remedy  the 
cause  of  the  acidity  which  often  ruins  the  Jura  red  or 
white  wines  in  the  wood,  the  town  of  Arbois,  proud  of  its 
celebrated  rosy  and  tawny  wines,  placed  an  impromptu 
laboratory  at  his  disposal  during  the  holidays  of  1864; 
the  expenses  were  all  to  be  covered  by  the  town.  "  This 
spontaneous  offer  from  a  town  dear  to  me  for  so  many 
reasons,"  answered  Pasteur  to  the  Mayor  and  Town 
Council,  "  does  too  much  honour  to  my  modest  labours,  and 
the  way  in  which  it  is  made  covers  me  with  confusion." 
He  refused  it  however,  fearing  that  the  services  he  might 
render  should  not  be  proportionate  to  the  generosity  of  the 
Council.  He  preferred  to  camp  out  with  his  curators  in  an 
old  coffee  room  at  the  entrance  of  the  town,  and  they  con- 
tented themselves  with  apparatus  of  the  most  primitive 
description,  generally  made  by  some  local  tinker  or  shoeing 
smith. 

148 


I860-I864 

The  problem  consisted,  in  Pasteur's  view,  in  opposing  the 
development  of  organized  ferments  or  parasitic  vegetations, 
causes  of  the  diseases  of  wines.  After  some  fruitless 
endeavours  to  destroy  all  vitality  in  the  germs  of  these 
parasites,  he  found  that  it  was  sufficient  to  keep  the  wine 
for  a  few  moments  at  a  temperature  of  50°  C.  to  60°  C. 
"I  have  also  ascertained  that  wine  was  never  altered 
by  that  preliminary  operation,  and  as  nothing  prevents  it 
afterwards  from  undergoing  the  gradual  action  of  the 
oxygen  in  the  air — the  only  cause,  as  I  think,  of  its  im- 
provement with  age — it  is  evident  that  this  process  offers 
every  advantage. 

It  seems  as  if  that  simple  and  practical  means,  applicable 
to  every  quality  of  wine,  now  only  had  to  be  tried.  But 
not  so.  Every  progress  is  opposed  by  prejudice,  petty 
jealousies,  indolence  even.  A  devoted  obstinacy  is  required 
in  order  to  overcome  this  opposition.  Pasteur's  desire  was 
that  his  country  should  benefit  by  his  discovery.  An 
Englishman  had  written  to  him:  "People  are  astonished 
in  France  that  the  sale  of  French  wines  should  not  have 
become  more  extended  here  since  the  Commercial  Treaties. 
The  reason  is  simple  enough.  At  first  we  eagerly  wel- 
comed those  wines,  but  we  soon  had  the  sad  experience 
that  there  was  too  much  loss  occasioned  by  the  diseases 
to  which  they  are  subject." 

Pasteur  was  in  the  midst  01  those  discussions,  experi- 
mental sittings,  etc.,  when  J.  B.  Dumas  suddenly  asked 
of  him  the  greatest  of  sacrifices,  that  of  leaving  the 
laboratory. 


149 


CHAPTER  VI 

1865-187O 

AN  epidemic  was  ruining  in  terrible  proportions  the 
industry  of  the  cultivation  of  silkworms.  J.  B.  Dumas 
had  been  desired,  as  Senator,  to  draw  up  a  report  on  the 
wishes  of  over  3,500  proprietors  in  sericicultural  departments, 
all  begging  the  public  authorities  to  study  the  question  of  the 
causes  of  the  protracted  epidemic.  Dumas  was  all  the  more 
preoccupied  as  to  the  fate  of  sériciculture  that  he  himself 
came  from  one  of  the  stricken  departments.  He  was  born  on 
July  14,  1800,  in  one  of  the  back  streets  of  the  town  of 
Alais,  to  which  he  enjoyed  returning  as  a  celebrated 
scientist  and  a  dignitary  of  the  Empire.  He  gave  much 
attention  to  all  the  problems  which  interested  the  national 
prosperity  and  considered  that  the  best  judges  in  these 
matters  were  the  men  of  science.  He  well  knew  the  con- 
scientious tenacity — besides  other  characteristics — which 
his  pupil  and  friend  brought  into  any  undertaking,  and 
anxiously  urged  him  to  undertake  this  study.  "  Your  pro- 
position," wrote  Pasteur  in  a  few  hurried  lines,  "throws 
me  into  a  great  perplexity  ;  it  is  indeed  most  flattering  and 
the  object  is  a  high  one,  but  it  troubles  and  embarrasses  me  ! 
Remember,  if  you  please,  that  I  have  never  even  touched  a 
silkworm.  If  I  had  some  of  your  knowledge  on  the  subject 
I  should  not  hesitate  ;  it  may  even  come  within  the  range 

150 


I865-I870 

of  my  present  studies.  However,  the  recollection  of  your 
many  kindnesses  to  me  would  leave  me  bitter  regrets  if  I 
were  to  decline  your  pressing  invitation.  Do  as  you  like 
with  me."  On  May  17,  1865,  Dumas  wrote:  "I  attach  the 
greatest  value  to  seeing  your  attention  fixed  on  the  question 
which  interests  my  poor  country  ;  the  distress  is  beyond 
anything  you  can  imagine." 

Before  his  departure  for  Alais,  Pasteur  had  read  an  essay 
on  the  history  of.  the  silkworm,  published  by  one  of  his 
colleagues,  Quatrefages,  born  like  Dumas  in  the  Gard. 
Quatrefages  attributed  to  an  Empress  of  China  the  first 
knowledge  of  the  art  of  utilizing  silk,  more  than  4,000  years 
ago.  The  Chinese,  in  possession  of  the  precious  insect,  had 
jealously  preserved  the  monopoly  of  its  culture,  even  to  the 
point  of  making  it  a  capital  offence  to  take  beyond  the  fron- 
tiers of  the  Empire  the  eggs  of  the  silkworm.  A  young 
princess,  2,000  years  later,  had  the  courage  to  infringe  this 
law  for  love  of  her  betrothed,  whom  she  was  going  to  join 
in  the  centre  of  Asia,  and  also  through  the  almost  equally 
strong  desire  to  continue  her  fairy-like  occupation  after  her 
marriage. 

Pasteur  appreciated  the  pretty  legend,  but  was  more 
interested  in  the  history  of  the  acclimatizing  of  the  mulberry 
tree.  From  Provence  Louis  XI  took  it  to  Touraine  : 
Catherine  de  Medici  planted  it  in  Orléanais.  Henry  IV 
had  some  mulberry  trees  planted  in  the  park  at  Fontaine- 
bleau and  in  the  Tuileries  where  they  succeeded  admirably. 
He  also  encouraged  a  Treatise  on  the  Gathering  of  Silk  by 
Olivier  de  Serres.  This  earliest  agricultural  writer  in 
France  was  much  appreciated  by  the  king,  in  spite  of  the 
opposition  of  Sully,  who  did  not  believe  in  this  new  fortune 
for  France.  Documentary  evidence  is  lacking  as  to  the 
development  of  the  silk  industry. 

15J 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

From  1700  to  1788,  wrote  Quatrefages,  France  produced 
annually  about  6,000,000  kilogrammes  of  cocoons.  This  was 
decreased  by  one-half  under  the  Republic  ;  wool  replaced 
silk  perhaps  from  necessity,  perhaps  from  affectation. 

Napoleon  I  restored  that  luxury.  The  sericicultiural 
industry  prospered  from  the  Imperial  Epoch  until  the  reign 
of  Louis  Philippe,  to  such  an  extent  as  to  reach  in  one  year 
a  total  of  20,000,000  kilogrammes  of  cocoons,  representing 
100,000,000  francs.  The  name  of  Tree  of  Gold  given  to 
the  mulberry,  had  never  been  better  deserved. 

Suddenly  all  these  riches  fell  away.  A  mysterious  disease 
was  destroying  the  nurseries.  "  Eggs,  worms,  chrysalides, 
moths,  the  disease  may  manifest  itself  in  all  the  organs," 
wrote  Dumas  in  his  report  to  the  Senate.  "  Whence  does 
it  come?  how  is  it  contracted?  No  one  knows.  But  its 
invasion  is  recognized  by  little  brown  or  black  spots."  It 
was  therefore  called  "corpuscle  disease";  it  was  also  desig- 
nated as  ^*gattitte'^  from  the  Italian  gattino,  kitten  ;  the  sick 
worms  held  up  their  heads  and  put  out  their  hooked  feet 
like  cats  about  to  scratch.  But  of  all  those  names,  that  of 
"  pébrine  "  adopted  by  Quatrefages  was  the  most  general. 
It  came  from  the  patois  word  pébré  (pepper).  The  spots 
on  the  diseased  worms  were,  in  fact,  rather  like  pepper 
grains. 

The  first  symptoms  had  been  noticed  by  some  in  1845,  by 
others  in  1847.  But  in  1849  it  was  a  disaster.  The  South 
of  France  was  invaded.  In  1853,  seed  had  to  be  procured 
from  Lombardy.  After  one  successful  year  the  same  dis- 
appointments recurred.  Italy  was  attacked,  also  Spain  and 
Austria.  Seed  was  procured  from  Greece,  Turkey,  the 
Caucasus,  but  the  evil  was  still  on  the  increase;  China 
itself  was  attacked,  and,  in  1864,  it  was  only  in  Japan  that 
healthy  seed  could  be  found. 

152 


I865-I870 

Every  hypothesis  was  suggested,  atmospheric  conditions, 
degeneration  of  the  race  of  silkworms,  disease  of  the  mul- 
berry tree,  etc. — books  and  treatises  abounded,  but  in  vain. 

When  Pasteur  started  for  Alais  (June  16,  1865),  entrusted 
with  this  scientific  mission  by  the  Minister  of  Agriculture, 
his  mind  saw  but  that  one  point  of  interrogation,  "What 
caused  these  fatal  spots? "  On  his  arrival  he  sympathetic- 
ally questioned  the  Alaisians.  He  received  confused  and 
contradictory  answers,  indications  of  chimerical  remedies  ; 
some  cultivators  poured  sulphur  or  charcoal  powder  on  the 
worms,  some  mustard  meal  or  castor  sugar  ;  ashes  and  soot 
were  used,  quinine  powders,  etc.  Some  cultivators  pre- 
ferred liquids,  and  syringed  the  mulberry  leaves  with  wine, 
rum  or  absinthe.  Fumigations  of  chlorine,  of  coal  tar,  were 
approved  by  some  and  violently  objected  to  by  others. 
Pasteur,  more  desirous  of  seeking  the  origin  of  the  evil  than 
of  making  a  census  of  these  remedies,  unceasingly  questioned 
the  nursery  owners,  who  invariably  answered  that  it  was 
something  like  the  plague  or  cholera.  Some  worms  lan- 
guished on  the  frames  in  their  earliest  days,  others  in  the 
second  stage  only,  some  passed  through  the  third  and  fourth 
moultings,  climbed  the  twig  and  spun  their  cocoon.  The 
chrysalis  became  a  moth,  but  that  diseased  moth  had  de- 
formed antennae  and  withered  legs,  the  wings  seemed  singed. 
Eggs  (technically  called  seed)  from  those  moths  were  inevi- 
tably unsuccessful  the  following  year.  Thus,  in  the  same 
nursery,  in  the  course  of  the  two  months  that  a  larva  takes 
to  become  a  moth,  the  pébrine  disease  was  alternately 
sudden  or  insidious  :  it  burst  out  or  disappeared,  it  hid  itself 
within  the  chrysalis  and  reappeared  in  the  moth  or  the 
eggs  of  a  moth  which  had  seemed  sound.  The  discouraged 
Alaisians  thought  that  nothing  could  overcome  pébrine. 

Pasteur  did  not  admit  such  resignation.    But  he  began 

153 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

by  one  aspect  only  of  the  problem.  He  resolved  to  submit 
those  corpuscles  of  the  silkworm  which  had  been  observed 
since  1849  to  microscopical  study.  He  settled  down  in  a 
small  magnanerie  near  Alais  ;  two  series  of  worms  were 
being  cultivated.  The  first  set  was  full  grown  ;  it  came 
from  some  Japanese  seed  guaranteed  as  sound,  and  had 
produced  very  fine  cocoons.  The  cultivator  intended  to  keep 
the  seed  of  the  moths  to  compensate  himself  for  the  failure 
of  the  second  set,  also  of  Japanese  origin,  but  not  officially 
guaranteed.  The  worms  of  this  second  series  were  sickly 
and  did  not  feed  properly.  And  yet  these  worms,  seen 
through  the  microscope,  only  exceptionally  presented  cor- 
puscles ;  whilst  Pasteur  was  surprised  to  find  some  in  almost 
every  moth  or  chrysalis  from  the  prosperous  nursery.  Was 
It  then  elsewhere  than  in  the  worms  that  the  secret  of  the 
pébrine  was  to  be  found  ? 

Pasteur  was  interrupted  in  the  midst  of  his  experiments 
by  a  sudden  blow.  Nine  days  after  his  arrival,  a  telegram 
called  him  to  Arbois  :  his  father  was  very  ill.  He  started, . 
full  of  anguish,  remembering  the  sudden  death  of  his  mother 
before  he  had  had  time  to  reach  her,  and  that  of  Jeanne,  his 
eldest  daughter,  who  had  also  died  far  away  from  him  in 
the  little  house  at  Arbois.  His  sad  presentiment  oppressed 
him  during  the  whole  of  the  long  journey,  and  was  fully 
justified  ;  he  arrived  to  find,  already  in  his  coffin,  the  father 
he  so  dearly  loved  and  whose  name  he  had  made  an  illus- 
trious one. 

In  the  evening,  in  the  empty  room  above  the  tannery, 
Pasteur  wrote  :  "  Dear  Marie,  dear  children,  the  dear  grand- 
father is  no  more;  we  have  taken  him  this  morning  to 
his  last  resting  place,  close  to  little  Jeanne's.  In  the  midst 
of  my  grief  I  have  felt  thankful  that  our  little  girl  had  been 
buried  there.     .     .    .    Until  the  last   moment  I  hoped  I 

154 


i86 5-1870 

should  see  him  again,  embrace  him  for  the  last  time  .  .  . 
but  when  I  arrived  at  the  station  I  saw  some  of  our  cousins 
all  in  black,  coming  from  Salins  ;  it  was  only  then  that  I 
understood  that  I  could  but  accompany  him  to  the  grave. 

"  He  died  on  the  day  of  your  first  communion,  dear  Cécile  ; 
those  two  memories  will  remain  in  your  heart,  my  poor 
child.  I  had  a  presentiment  of  it  when  that  very  morning, 
at  the  hour  when  he  was  struck  down,  I  was  asking  you  to 
pray  for  the  grandfather  at  Arbois.  Your  prayers  will 
have  been  acceptable  unto  God,  and  perhaps  the  dear  grand- 
father himself  knew  of  them  and  rejoiced  with  dear  little 
Jeanne  over  Cécile's  piety. 

"  I  have  been  thinking  all  day  of  the  marks  of  affection 
I  have  had  from  my  father.  For  thirty  years  I  have  been 
his  constant  care,  I  owe  everything  to  him.  When  I  was 
young  he  kept  me  from  bad  company  and  instilled  into  me 
the  habit  of  working  and  the  example  of  the  most  loyal  and 
best-filled  life.  He  was  far  above  his  position  both  in  mind 
and  in  character.  .  .  .  You  did  not  know  him,  dearest 
Marie,  at  the  time  when  he  and  my  mother  were  working 
so  hard  for  the  children  they  loved,  for  me  especially,  whose 
books  and  schooling  cost  so  much.  .  .  .  And  the  touch- 
ing part  of  his  affection  for  me  is  that  it  never  was  mixed 
with  ambition.  You  remember  that  he  would  have  been 
pleased  to  see  me  the  headmaster  of  Arbois  College  ?  He 
foresaw  that  advancement  would  mean  hard  work,  perhaps 
detrimental  to  my  health.  And  yet  I  am  sure  that  some  of 
the  success  in  my  scientific  career  must  have  filled  him  with 
joy  and  pride  ;  his  son  !  his  name  I  the  child  he  had  guided 
and  cherished  !  My  dear  father,  how  thankful  I  am  that  I 
could  give  him  some  satisfaction  ! 

"  Farewell,  dearest  Marie,  dear  children.  We  shall  often 
talk  of  the  dear  grandfather.    How  glad  I  am  that  he  saw 

155 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

you  all  again  a  short  time  ago,  and  that  he  lived  to  know- 
little  Camille.  I  long  to  see  you  all,  but  must  go  back  to 
Alais,  for  my  studies  would  be  retarded  by  a  year  if  I  could 
not  spend  a  few  days  there  now. 

"  I  have  some  ideas  on  this  disease,  which  is  indeed  a 
scourge  for  all  those  southern  departments.  The  one  arron- 
dissement of  Alais  has  lost  an  income  of  120,000,000  francs 
during  the  last  fifteen  years.  M.  Dumas  is  a  million  times 
right  ;  it  must  be  seen  to,  and  I  am  going  to  continue  my 
experiments.  1  am  writing  to  M.  Nisard  to  have  the  ad- 
mission examinations  in  my  absence,  which  can  easily  be 
done." 

Nisard  wrote  to  him  (June  19)  :  "  My  dear  friend,  I  heard 
of  your  loss,  and  I  sympathize  most  cordially  with  you. 
.  .  .  Take  all  the  time  necessary  to  you.  You  are  away 
in  the  service  of  science,  probably  of  humanity.  Every- 
thing will  be  done  according  to  your  precise  indications.  I 
foresee  no  difficulty  .  .  .  everything  is  going  on  well 
at  the  Ecole.  In  spite  of  your  reserve — which  is  a  part  of 
your  talent — I  see  that  you  are  on  the  track,  as  M.  Biot 
would  have  said,  and  that  you  will  have  your  prey.  Your 
name  will  stand  next  to  that  of  Olivier  de  Serres  in  the 
annals  of  sériciculture." 

On  his  return  to  Alais  Pasteur  went  back  to  his  obser- 
vations with  his  scientific  ardour  and  his  customary  gene- 
rous eagerness  to  lighten  the  burden  of  others.  He  wrote 
in  the  introduction  to  his  Studies  on  Silkworm  Disease  the 
following  heartfelt  lines — 

"A  traveller  coming  back  to  the  Cévennes  mountains 
after  an  absence  of  fifteen  years  would  be  saddened  to  see 
the  change  wrought  in  that  countryside  within  such  a  short 
time.  Formerly  he  might  have  seen  robust  men  breaking 
up  the  rock  to  build  terraces  against  the  side  and  up  to  the 

156 


I865-I870 

summit  of  each  mountain  ;  then  planting  mulberry  trees  on 
these  terraces.  These  men,  in  spite  of  their  hard  work,  were 
then  bright  and  happy,  for  ease  and  contentment  reigned 
in  their  homes. 

"Now  the  mulberry  plantations  are  abandoned,  the  'golden 
tree  '  no  longer  enriches  the  country,  faces  once  beaming 
with  health  and  good  humour  are  now  sad  and  drawn. 
Distress  and  hunger  have  succeeded  to  comfort  and  happi- 
ness." 

Pasteur  thought  with  sorrow  of  the  sufferings  of  the 
Cévenol  populations.  The  scientific  problem  was  narrow- 
ing itself  down.  Faced  by  the  contradictory  facts  that  one 
successful  set  of  cocoons  had  produced  corpuscled  moths, 
while  an  apparently  unsuccessful  set  of  worms  showed 
neither  corpuscles  nor  spots,  he  had  awaited  the  last  period 
of  these  worms  with  an  impatient  curiosity.  He  saw, 
amongst  those  which  had  started  spinning,  some  which  as 
yet  showed  no  spots  and  no  corpuscles.  But  corpuscles  were 
abundant  in  the  chrysalides,  those  especially  which  were 
in  full  maturity,  on  the  eve  of  becoming  moths  ;  and  none 
of  the  moths  were  free  from  them.  Perhaps  the  fact  that 
the  disease  appeared  in  the  chrysalis  and  moth  only  ex- 
plained the  failures  of  succeeding  series.  "  It  was  a  mistake," 
wrote  Pasteur  (June  26,  1865),  "  to  look  for  the  symptom, 
the  corpuscle,  exclusively  in  the  eggs  or  the  worms  ;  either 
might  carry  in  themselves  the  germ  of  the  disease,  without 
presenting  distinct  and  microscopically  visible  corpuscles. 
The  evil  developed  itself  chiefly  in  the  chrysalides  and  the 
moths,  it  was  there  that  it  should  chiefly  be  sought.  There 
should  be  an  infallible  means  of  procuring  healthy  seed  by 
having  recourse  to  moths  free  from  corpuscles." 

This  idea  was  like  a  searchlight  flashed  into  the  darkness. 
Pasteur  thus  formulated  his  hypothesis  :  "  Every  moth  con- 

157 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

taining  corpuscles  must  give  birth  to  diseased  seed.  If  a 
moth  only  has  a  few  corpuscles,  its  eggs  will  provide  worms 
without  any,  or  which  will  only  develop  them  towards  the 
end  of  their  life.  If  the  moth  is  much  infected,  the  disease 
will  show  itself  in  the  earliest  stages  of  the  worm,  either  by 
corpuscles  or  by  other  unhealthy  symptoms." 

Pasteur  studied  hundreds  of  moths  under  the  microscope. 
Nearly  all,  two  or  three  couples  excepted,  were  corpuscled, 
but  that  restricted  quantity  was  increased  by  a  precious 
gift.  Two  people,  who  had  heard  Pasteur  ventilate  his 
theories,  brought  him  five  moths  born  of  a  local  race  of 
silkworms  and  nurtured  in  the  small  neighbouring  town 
of  Anduze  in  the  Turkish  fashion,  i.e.  without  any  of  the 
usual  precautions  consisting  in  keeping  the  worms  in 
nurseries  heated  at  an  equal  temperature.  Everything 
having  been  tried,  this  system  had  also  had  its  turn,  with- 
out any  appreciable  success.  By  a  fortunate  circumstance, 
four  out  of  those  five  moths  were  healthy. 

Pasteur  looked  forward  to  the  study  in  comparisons  that 
the  following  spring  would  bring  when  worms  were  hatched 
both  from  the  healthy  and  the  diseased  seed.  In  the  mean- 
while, only  a  few  of  the  Alaisians,  including  M.  Pages,  the 
Mayor,  and  M.  de  Lachadenède,  really  felt  any  confidence  in 
these  results.  Most  of  the  other  silkworm  cultivators  were 
disposed  to  criticize  everything,  without  having  the  patience 
to  wait  for  results.  They  expressed  much  regret  that  the 
Government  should  choose  a  "mere  chemist"  for  those 
investigations  instead  of  some  zoologist  or  silkworm 
cultivator.    Pasteur  only  said,  "  Have  patience." 

He  returned  to  Paris,  where  fresh  sorrow  awaited  him  : 
Camille,  his  youngest  child,  only  two  years  old,  was  seriously 
ill.  He  watched  over  her  night  after  night,  spending  his 
days  at  his  task  in  the  laboratory,  and  returning  in  the 

158 


1865-1870 

evening  to  the  bedside  of  his  dying  child.  During  that 
same  period  he  was  asked  for  an  article  on  Lavoisier  by 
J.  B.  Dumas,  who  had  been  requested  by  the  Government  to 
publish  his  works. 

"  No  one,"  wrote  Dumas  to  Pasteur — "has  read  Lavoisier 
with  more  attention  than  you  have;  no  one  can  judge  ot 
him  better.  .  .  .  The  chance  which  caused  me  to  be  born 
before  you  has  placed  me  in  communication  with  surround- 
ings and  with  men  in  whom  I  have  found  the  ideas  and 
feelings  which  have  guided  me  in  this  work.  But,  had  it 
been  yours,  I  should  have  allowed  no  one  else  to  be  the  first 
in  drawing  the  world's  attention  to  it.  It  is  from  this 
motive,  also  from  a  certain  conformity  of  tastes  and  of 
principles  which  has  long  made  you  dear  to  me,  that  I  now 
ask  you  to  give  up  a  few  hours  to  Lavoisier." 

"My  dear  and  illustrious  master,"  answered  Pasteur 
(July  18,  1865),  "in  the  face  of  your  letter  and  its 
expressions  of  affectionate  confidence,  I  cannot  refuse  to 
submit  to  you  a  paper  which  you  must  promise  to  throw 
away  if  it  should  not  be  exactly  what  you  want.  I  must 
also  ask  you  to  grant  me  much  time,  partly  on  account  of 
my  inexperience,  and  partly  on  account  of  the  fatigue  both 
mental  and  bodily  imposed  on  me  by  the  illness  of  our  dear 
child." 

Dumas  replied:  " Dear  friend  and  colleague,  I  thank  you 
for  your  kind  acquiescence  in  Lavoisier's  interests,  which 
might  well  be  your  own,  for  no  one  at  this  time  represents 
better  than  you  do  his  spirit  and  method, — a  method  in 
which  reasoning  had  more  share  than  anything  else. 

"  The  art  of  observation  and  that  of  experimentation  are 
very  distinct.  In  the  first  case,  the  fact  may  either  proceed 
from  logical  reasons  or  be  mere  good  fortune  ;  it  is  sufficient 
to  have  some  penetration  and  the  sense  of  truth  in  order  to 

159 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

profit  by  it.  But  the  art  of  experimentation  leads  from  the 
first  to  the  last  link  of  the  chain,  without  hesitation  and 
without  a  blank,  making  successive  use  of  Reason,  which 
suggests  an  alternative,  and  of  Experience,  which  decides  on 
it,  until,  starting  from  a  faint  glimmer,  the  full  blaze  of  light 
is  reached.  Lavoisier  made  this  art  into  a  method,  and  you 
possess  it  to  a  degree  which  always  gives  me  a  pleasure  for 
which  I  am  grateful  to  you. 

"  Take  your  time.  Lavoisier  has  waited  seventy  years  1  It 
is  a  century  since  his  first  results  were  produced  !  What 
are  weeks  and  months  ? 

"  I  feel  for  you  with  all  my  heart  !  I  know  how  heart- 
rending are  those  moments  by  the  deathbed  of  a  suffering 
child.  I  hope  and  trust  this  great  sorrow  will  be  spared 
you,  as  indeed  you  deserve  that  it  should  be." 

The  promise  made  by  Dumas  to  give  to  France  an  edition 
of  Lavoisier's  works  dated  very  far  back.  It  was  in  May, 
1836,  in  one  of  his  eloquent  lectures  at  the  Collège  de 
France,  that  Dumas  had  declared  his  intention  of  raising  a 
scientific  monument  to  the  memory  of  this,  perhaps  the 
greatest  of  all  French  scientists.  He  had  hoped  that  a  Bill 
would  be  passed  by  the  Government  of  Louis  Philippe 
decreeing  that  this  edition  of  Lavoisier's  works  would  be 
produced  at  the  expense  of  the  State.  But  the  usual 
obstacles  and  formalities  came  in  the  way.  Governments 
succeeded  each  other,  and  it  was  only  in  1861  that 
Dumas  obtained  the  decree  he  wished  for  and  that  the 
book  appeared. 

Certainly  Pasteur  knew  and  admired  as  much  as  any  one 
the  discoveries  of  Lavoisier.  But,  in  the  presence  of  the 
series  of  labours  accomplished,  in  spite  of  many  other 
burdens,  during  that  life  cut  off  in  its  prime  by  the 
Revolutionary  Tribunal  (1792),  labours  collated  for  the  first 

160 


I 865- I 870 

time  by  Dumas,  Pasteur  was  filled  with  a  new  and  vivid 
emotion.  His  logic  in  reasoning  and  his  patience  in  observing 
nature  had  in  no  wise  diminished  the  impetuous  generosity 
of  his  feelings;  a  beautiful  book,  a  great  discovery,  a 
brilliant  exploit  or  a  humble  act  of  kindness  would  move 
him  to  tears.  Concerning  such  a  man  as  Lavoisier,  Pasteur's 
curiosity  became  a  sort  of  worship.  He  would  have  had 
the  history  of  such  a  life  spread  everywhere.  "  Though 
one  discovery  always  surpasses  another,  and  though  the 
chemical  and  physical  knowledge  accumulated  since  his 
time  has  gone  beyond  all  Lavoisier's  dreams,"  wrote 
Pasteur,  "  his  work,  like  that  of  Newton  and  a  few  other 
rare  spirits,  will  remain  ever  young.  Certain  details  will 
age,  as  do  the  fashions  of  another  time,  but  the  foundation, 
the  method,  constitute  one  of  those  great  aspects  of  the 
human  mind  the  majesty  of  which  is  only  increased  by 
years.  ..." 

Pasteur's  article  appeared  in  the  Moniteur  and  was  much 
praised  by  the  celebrated  critic  Sainte  Beuve,  whose  literary 
lectures  were  often  attended  by  Pasteur,  between  1857  and 
186 1.  The  chronological  order  that  we  are  following  in 
this  history  of  Pasteur's  life  allows  us  to  follow  the  ideas 
and  feelings  with  which  he  lived  his  life  of  hard  daily  work 
combined  with  daily  devotion  to  others.  Joys  and  sorrows 
can  be  chronicled,  thanks  to  the  confidences  of  those  who 
loved  him.  His  fame  is  indeed  part  of  the  future,  but  the 
tenderness  which  he  inspired  revives  the  memories  of  the 
past. 

In  September,  1865,  little  Camille  died.  Pasteur  took  the 
tiny  coffin  to  Arbois  and  went  back  to  his  work.  A  letter 
written  in  November  alludes  to  the  depth  of  his  grief. 

It  was  à  propos  of  a  candidature  to  the  Académie  des 
Sciences,  Sainte  Beuve  was  asked  to  help  that  of  a  young 

VOL.  I.  161  M 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

friend  of  his,  Charles  Robin.  Robin  occupied  a  professor's 
chair  specially  created  for  him  at  the  Faculté  de  Médecine  ;  he 
had  made  a  deep  microscopical  study  of  the  tissues  of  living 
bodies,  of  cellular  life,  of  all  which  constitutes  histology. 
He  was  convinced  that  outside  his  own  studies,  numerous 
questions  would  fall  more  and  more  into  the  domain  of 
experimentation,  and  he  believed  that  the  faith  in  spiritual 
things  could  not  "  stand  the  struggle  against  the  spirit  of 
the  times,  wholly  turned  to  positive  things."  He  did  not, 
like  Pasteur,  understand  the  clear  distinction  between  the 
scientist  on  the  one  hand  and  the  man  of  sentiment  on  the 
other,  each  absolutely  independent.  Neither  did  he  imitate 
the  reserve  of  Claude  Bernard  who  did  not  allow  himself  to 
be  pressed  by  any  urgent  questioner  into  enrolment  with 
either  the  believers  or  the  unbelievers,  but  answered  : 
"  When  I  am  in  my  laboratory,  I  begin  by  shutting  the  door 
on  materialism  and  on  spiritualism  ;  I  observe  facts  alone 
I  seek  but  the  scientific  conditions  under  which  life 
manifests  itself."  Robin  was  a  disciple  of  Auguste  Comte, 
and  proclaimed  himself  a  Positivist,  a  word  which  for 
superficial  people  was  the  equivalent  of  materialist.  The 
same  efforts  which  had  succeeded  in  keeping  Littré  out  of 
the  Académie  Française  in  1863  were  now  attempted  in 
order  to  keep  Robin  out  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences  in 
1865. 

Sainte  Beuve,  whilst  studying  medicine,  had  been  a 
Positivist  ;  his  quick  and  impressionable  nature  had  then 
turned  to  a  mysticism  which  had  inspired  him  to  pen  some 
fine  verses.  He  had  now  returned  to  his  former  philosophy, 
but  kept  an  open  mind,  however,  criticism  being  for  him 
not  the  art  of  dictating,  but  of  understanding,  and  he  was 
absolutely  averse  to  irrelevant  considerations  when  a 
candidature  was  in  question. 

162 


I865-I870 

The  best  means  with  Pasteur,  who  was  no  diplomat,  was 
to  go  straight  to  the  point.  Sainte  Beuve  therefore  wrote 
to  him  :  "  Dear  Sir,  will  you  allow  me  to  be  indiscreet 
enough  to  solicit  your  influence  in  favour  of  M.  Robin, 
whose  work  I  know  you  appreciate  ? 

"  M.  Robin  does  not  perhaps  belong  to  the  same  philo- 
sophical school  as  you  do;  but  it  seems  to  me — from  an 
outsider's  point  of  view — that  he  belongs  to  the  same 
scientific  school.  If  he  should  differ  essentially — whether 
in  metaphysics  or  otherwise — 'WOuld  it  not  be  worthy  of  a 
great  scientist  to  take  none  but  positive  work  into  account  ? 
Nothing  more,  nothing  less. 

"  Forgive  me  ;  I  have  much  resented  the  injustice  towards 
you  of  certain  newspapers,  and  I  have  sometimes  asked 
myself  if  there  were  not  some  simple  means  of  showing  up 
all  that  nonsense,  and  of  disproving  those  absurd  and  ill- 
intentioned  statements.  If  M.  Robin  deserves  to  be  of 
the  Académie  why  should  he  not  attain  to  it  through 
you?     .     .     . 

"  My  sense  of  gratitude  towards  you  for  those  four  years 
during  which  you  have  done  me  the  honour  of  including 
such  a  man  as  you  are  in  my  audience,  also  a  feeling  of 
friendship,  are  carrying  me  too  far.  I  intended  to  mention 
this  to  you  the  other  day  at  the  Princess's  ;  she  had  wished 
me  to  do  so,  but  I  feel  bolder  with  a  pen.     ..." 

The  Princess  in  question  was  Princess  Mathilde.  Her 
salon,  a  rendezvous  of  men  of  letters,  men  of  science  and 
artists,  was  a  sort  of  second  Academy  which  consoled 
Théophile  Gautier  for  not  belonging  to  the  other.  Sainte 
Beuve  prided  himself  on  being,  so  to  speak,  honorary 
secretary  to  this  accomplished  and  charming  hostess. 

Pasteur  answered  by  return  of  post.  "  Sir  and  illustrious 
colleague,  I  feel  strongly  inclined  towards  M.  Robin,  who 

163 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

would  represent  a  new  scientific  element  at  the  Academy — 
the  microscope  applied  to  the  study  of  the  human  organism. 
I  do  not  trouble  about  his  philosophical  school  save  for  the 
harm  it  may  do  to  his  work.  ...  I  confess  frankly,  how- 
ever, that  I  am  not  competent  on  the  question  of  our  philoso- 
phical schools.  Of  M.  Comte  I  have  only  read  a  few  absurd 
passages  ;  of  M.  Littré  I  only  know  the  beautiful  pages  you 
were  inspired  to  write  by  his  rare  knowledge  and  some 
of  his  domestic  virtues.  My  philosophy  is  of  the  heart  and 
not  of  the  mind,  and  I  give  myself  up,  for  instance,  to  those 
feelings  about  eternity  which  come  naturally  at  the  bed- 
side of  a  cherished  child  drawing  its  last  breath.  At  those 
supreme  moments,  there  is  something  in  the  depths  of  our 
souls  which  tells  us  that  the  world  may  be  more  than  a 
mere  combination  of  phenomena  proper  to  a  mechanical 
equilibrium  brought  out  of  the  chaos  of  the  elements 
simply  through  the  gradual  action  of  the  forces  of  matter. 
I  admire  them  all,  our  philosophers  !  We  have  experi- 
ments to  straighten  and  modify  our  ideas,  and  we  con- 
stantly find  that  nature  is  other  than  we  had  imagined. 
They,  who  are  always  guessing,  how  can  they  know!  ..." 

Sainte  Beuve  was  probably  not  astonished  at  Pasteur's 
somewhat  hasty  epithet  applied  to  Auguste  Comte,  whom  he 
had  himself  defined  as  "an  obscure,  abstruse,  often  dis- 
eased brain."  After  Robin's  election  he  wrote  to  his  "  dear 
and  learned  colleague" — 

"  I  have  not  allowed  myself  to  thank  you  for  the  letter, 
so  beautiful,  if  I  may  say  so,  so  deep  and  so  exalted  in 
thought,  which  you  did  me  the  honour  of  writing  in 
answer  to  mine.  Nothing  now  forbids  me  to  tell  you 
how  deeply  I  am  struck  with  your  way  of  thinking  and 
with  your  action  in  this  scientific  matter." 

That  "  something  in  the  depths  of  our  souls  "  of  which 

164 


I865-I870 

Pasteur  spoke  in  his  letter  to  Sainte  Beuve,  was  often 
perceived  in  his  conversation  ;  absorbed  as  he  was  in 
his  daily  task,  he  yet  carried  in  himself  a  constant 
aspiration  towards  the  Ideal,  a  deep  conviction  of  the 
reality  of  the  Infinite  and  a  trustful  acquiescence  in  the 
Mystery  of  the  universe. 

During  the  last  term  of  the  year  1865,  he  turned  from  his 
work  for  a  time  in  order  to  study  cholera.  Coming  from 
Egypt,  the  scourge  had  lighted  on  Marseilles,  then  on  Paris, 
where  it  made  in  October  more  than  two  hundred  victims 
per  day;  it  was  feared  that  the  days  of  1832  would  be 
repeated,  when  the  deaths  reached  twenty-three  per  1,000. 
Claude  Bernard,  Pasteur,  and  Sainte  Claire  Deville  went 
into  the  attics  of  the  Lariboisière  hospital,  above  a  cholera 
ward. 

"  We  had  opened,"  said  Pasteur,  "  one  of  the  ventilators 
communicating  with  the  ward;  we  had  adapted  to  the 
opening  a  glass  tube  surrounded  by  a  refrigerating 
mixture,  and  we  drew  the  air  of  the  ward  into  our 
tube,  so  as  to  condense  into  it  as  many  as  we  could  of 
the  products  of  the  air  in  the  ward." 

Claude  Bernard  and  Pasteur  afterwards  tried  blood  taken 
from  patients,  and  many  other  things  ;  they  were  associated 
in  those  experiments,  which  gave  no  result.  Henri  Sainte 
Claire  Deville  once  said  to  Pasteur,  "  Studies  of  that  sort 
require  much  courage."  "What  about  duty?"  said  Pasteur 
simply,  in  a  tone,  said  Deville  afterwards,  worth  many 
sermons.  The  cholera  did  not  last  long  ;  by  the  end  of  the 
autumn  all  danger  had  disappeared. 

Napoleon  the  Third  loved  science,  and  found  in  it  a  sense 
of  assured  stability  which  politics  did  not  offer  him.  He 
desired  Pasteur  to  come  and  spend  a  week  at  the  Palace  of 
Compiègne. 

165 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

The  very  first  evening  a  grand  reception  took  place. 
The  diplomatic  world  was  represented  by  M.  de  Budberg, 
ambassador  of  Russia,  and  the  Prussian  ambassador, 
M.  de  Goltz.  Among  the  guests  were  :  Dr.  Longet,  cele- 
brated for  his  researches  and  for  his  Treatise  on  Physiology^ 
a  most  original  physician,  whose  one  desire  was  to  avoid 
patients  and  so  have  more  time  for  pure  science;  Jules 
Sandeau,  the  tender  and  delicate  novelist,  with  his  some- 
what heavy  aspect  of  a  captain  in  the  Garde  Nationale  ; 
Paul  Baudry,  the  painter,  then  in  the  flower  of  his  youth 
and  radiant  success  ;  Paul  Dubois,  the  conscientious  artist 
of  the  Chanteur  Florentin  exhibited  that  very  year  ;  the 
architect,  Viollet  le  Duc,  an  habitué  of  the  palace.  The 
Emperor  drew  Pasteur  aside  towards  the  fireplace,  and 
the  scientist  soon  found  himself  instructing  his  Sovereign, 
talking  about  ferments  and  molecular  dissymmetry. 

Pasteur  was  congratulated  by  the  courtiers  on  the  favour 
shown  by  this  immediate  confidential  talk,  and  the  Empress 
sent  him  word  that  she  wished  him  to  talk  with  her  also. 
Pasteur  remembered  this  conversation,  an  animated  one, 
a  little  disconnected,  chiefly  about  animalculae,  infusories 
and  ferments.  When  the  guests  returned  to  the  immense 
corridor  into  which  the  rooms  opened,  each  with  the  name 
of  the  guest  on  the  door,  Pasteur  wrote  to  Paris  for  his 
microscope  and  for  some  samples  of  diseased  wines. 

The  next  morning  a  stag  hunt  was  organized  ;  riders  in 
handsome  costumes,  open  carriages  drawn  by  six  horses 
and  containing  guests,  entered  the  forest  ;  a  stag  was  soon 
brought  to  bay  by  the  hounds.  In  the  evening,  after 
dinner,  there  was  a  torchlight  procession  in  the  great 
courtyard.  Amid  a  burst  of  trumpets,  the  footmen  in 
state  livery,  standing  in  a  circle,  held  aloft  the  flaming 
torches.     In  the  centre,  a  huntsman  held  part  of  the  car- 

i66 


I865-I870 

case  of  the  stag  and  waved  it  to  and  fro  before  the  greedy- 
eyes  of  the  hounds,  who,  eager  to  hurl  themselves  upon  it, 
and  now  restrained  by  a  word,  then  let  loose,  and  again 
called  back  all  trembling  at  their  discomfiture,  were  at 
length  permitted  to  rush  upon  and  devour  their  prey. 

The  next  day  offered  another  item  on  the  programme,  a 
visit  to  the  castle  of  Pierrefonds,  marvellously  restored 
by  Viollet  le  Duc  at  the  expense  of  the  Imperial  purse. 
Pasteur,  who,  like  the  philosopher,  might  have  said  :  "  I  am 
never  bored  but  when  I  am  being  entertained,"  made  his 
arrangements  so  that  the  day  should  not  be  entirely  wasted. 
He  made  an  appointment  for  his  return  with  the  head 
butler,  hoping  to  find  a  few  diseased  wines  in  the  Imperial 
cellar.  That  department,  however,  was  so  well  administered 
that  he  was  only  able  to  find  seven  or  eight  suspicious 
looking  bottles.  The  tall  flunkeys,  who  scarcely  realized 
the  scientific  interest  offered  by  a  basketful  of  wine 
bottles,  watched  Pasteur  more  or  less  ironically  as  he 
returned  to  his  room,  where  he  had  the  pleasure  of  finding 
his  microscope  and  case  of  instruments  sent  from  the  Rue 
d'Ulm.  He  remained  upstairs,  absorbed  as  he  would  have 
been  in  his  laboratory,  in  the  contemplation  of  a  drop  of 
bitter  wine  revealing  the  tiny  mycoderma  which  caused 
the  bitterness. 

In  the  meanwhile  some  of  the  other  guests  were  gathered 
in  the  smoking  room,  smilingly  awaiting  the  Empress'  five 
o'clock  tea,  whilst  others  were  busy  with  the  preparations 
for  the  performance  of  Racine's  Plaideurs,  which  Provost, 
Régnier,  Got,  Delaunay,  Coquelin,  and  Mademoiselle 
Jouassain  were  going  to  act  that  very  evening  in  the 
theatre  of  the  palace. 

On  the  Sunday,  at  4  p.m.,  he  was  received  privately  by 
their  Majesties,  for  their  instruction  and  edification.    He 

167 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

wrote  in  a  letter  to  a  friend:  "I  went  to  the  Emperor 
with  my  microscope,  my  wine  samples,  and  all  my 
paraphernalia.  When  I  was  announced,  the  Emperor 
came  up  to  meet  me  and  asked  me  to  come  in.  M.  Conti, 
who  was  writing  at  a  table,  rose  to  leave  the  room,  but 
was  invited  to  stay.  Then  he  fetched  the  Empress,  and 
I  began  to  show  their  Majesties  various  objects  under  the 
microscope  and  to  explain  them  ;  it  lasted  a  whole  hour." 

The  Empress  had  been  much  interested,  and  wished  that 
her  five  o'clock  friends — who  were  waiting  in  the  room 
where  tea  was  served — should  also  acquire  some  notions  of 
these  studies.  She  merrily  took  up  the  microscope,  laughing 
at  her  new  occupation  of  laboratory  attendant,  and  arrived 
thus  laden  in  the  drawing-room,  much  to  the  surprise  of  her 
privileged  guests.  Pasteur  came  in  behind  her,  and  gave 
a  short  and  simple  account  of  a  few  general  ideas  and 
precise  discoveries. 

In  the  same  way,  the  preceding  week,  Le  Verrier  ^  had 
spoken  of  his  planet,  and  Dr.  Longet  had  given  a  lecture 
on  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  That  butterfly  world  of  the 
Court,  taking  a  momentary  interest  in  scientific  things,  did 
not  foresee  that  the  smallest  discovery  made  in  the  poor 
laboratory  of  the  Rue  d'Ulm  would  leave  a  more  lasting 
impression  than  the  fêtes  of  the  Tuileries  of  Fontainebleau 
and  of  Compiègne. 

In  the  course  of  their  private  interview,  Napoleon  and 
Eugénie  manifested  some  surprise  that  Pasteur  should  not 

^  Le  Verrier,  a  celebrated  astronomer,  at  that  time  Director  of  the 
Paris  Observatory.  His  calculations  led  him  to  surmise  the  existence 
of  the  planet  Neptune,  which  was  discovered  accordingly.  Adam,  an 
English  astronomer,  attained  the  same  result,  by  the  same  means,  at  the 
same  time,  each  of  the  two  scientists  being  in  absolute  ignorance  of  the 
work  of  the  other.  Le  Verrier  was  the  first  to  publish  his  discovery. 
[Trans.] 

i68 


I865-I870 

endeavour  to  turn  his  discoveries  and  their  applications 
to  a  source  of  legitimate  profit.  "  In  France,"  he  replied, 
"scientists  would  consider  that  they  lowered  themselves  by 
doing  so." 

He  was  convinced  that  a  man  of  pure  science  would 
complicate  his  life,  the  order  of  his  thoughts,  and  risk 
paralysing  his  inventive  faculties,  if  he  were  to  make 
money  by  his  discoveries.  For  instance,  if  he  had  followed 
up  the  industrial  results  of  his  studies  on  vinegar,  his  time 
would  have  been  too  much  and  too  regularly  occupied,  and 
he  would  not  have  been  free  for  new  researches. 

"  My  mind  is  free,"  he  said.  "  I  am  as  full  of  ardour  for 
the  new  question  of  silkworm  disease  as  I  was  in  1863, 
when  I  took  up  the  wine  question." 

What  he  most  wished  was  to  be  able  to  watch  the  growth 
of  the  silkworms  from  the  very  first  day,  and  to  pursue 
without  interruption  this  serious  study  in  which  the  future 
of  France  was  interested.  That,  and  the  desire  to  have 
one  day  a  laboratory  adequate  to  the  magnitude  of  his 
works  were  his  only  ambitions.  On  his  return  to  Paris 
he  obtained  leave  to  go  back  to  Alais. 

"My  dear  Raulin,"  wrote  Pasteur  to  his  former  pupil 
in  January,  1866,  "  I  am  again  entrusted  by  the  Minister 
of  Agriculture  with  a  mission  for  the  study  of  silkworm 
disease,  which  will  last  at  least  five  months,  from  February 
I  to  the  end  of  June.     Would  you  care  to  join  me?  " 

Raulin  excused  himself;  he  was  then  preparing,  with  his 
accustomed  slow  conscientiousness,  his  doctor's  thesis,  a 
work  afterwards  considered  by  competent  judges  to  be  a 
masterpiece." 

"I  must  console  myself,"  wrote  Pasteur,  expressing  his 
regrets,  "by  thinking  that  you  will  complete  your  excellent 
thesis." 

169 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

One  of  Raulin's  fellow  students  at  the  Ecole  Normale, 
M.  Gernez,  was  now  a  professor  at  the  Collège  Louis  le 
Grand.  His  mind  was  eminently  congenial  to  Pasteur's. 
Duruy,  then  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  was  ever 
anxious  to  smooth  down  all  difficulties  in  the  path  of 
science  :  he  gave  a  long  leave  of  absence  to  M.  Gernez,  in 
order  that  he  might  take  Raulin's  place.  Another  young 
Normalien,  Maillot,  prepared  to  join  the  scientific  party, 
much  to  his  delight.  The  three  men  left  Paris  at  the 
beginning  of  February.  They  began  by  spending  a  few  days 
in  an  hotel  at  Alais,  trying  to  find  a  suitable  house  where 
they  would  set  up  their  temporary  laboratory.  After  a 
week  or  two  in  a  house  within  the  town,  too  far  to  be  con- 
venient, from  the  restaurant  where  they  had  their  meals 
Maillot  discovered  a  lonely  house  at  the  foot  of  the  Mount 
of  the  Hermitage,  a  mountain  once  covered  with  flourishing- 
mulberry  trees,  but  now  abandoned,  and  growing  but  a 
few  olive  trees. 

This  house,  at  Pont  Gisquet,  not  quite  a  mile  from  Alais, 
was  large  enough  to  hold  Pasteur,  his  family  and  his  pupils  ; 
a  laboratory  was  soon  arranged  in  an  empty  orangery. 

"Then  began  a  period  of  intense  work,"  writes  M. 
Gernez.  "  Pasteur  undertook  a  great  number  of  trials, 
which  he  himself  followed  in  their  minutest  details;  he 
only  required  our  help  over  similar  operations  by  which 
he  tested  his  own.  The  result  was  that  above  the  fatigues 
of  the  day,  easily  borne  by  us  strong  young  men,  he 
had  to  bear  the  additional  burden  of  special  researches, 
importunate  visitors,  and  an  equally  importunate  corre- 
spondence, chiefly  dealing  out  criticisms  ..." 

Madame  Pasteur,  who  had  been  detained  in  Paris  for 
her  children's  education,  set  out  for  Alais  with  her  two 
daughters.     Her  mother  being  then  on  a  visit  to  the  rector 

170 


I 865-1870 

of  the  Chambéry  Academy,  M.  Zevort,  she  arranged  to 
spend  a  day  or  two  in  that  town.  But  hardly  had  she 
arrived  when  her  daughter  Cécile,  then  twelve  years 
old,  became  ill  with  typhoid  fever.  Madame  Pasteur  had 
the  courage  not  to  ask  her  husband  to  leave  his  work  and 
come  to  her  ;  but  her  letters  alarmed  him,  and  the  anxious 
father  gave  up  his  studies  for  a  few  days  and  arrived  at 
Chambéry.  The  danger  at  that  time  seemed  averted, 
and  he  only  remained  three  days  at  Chambéry.  Cécile, 
apparently  convalescent,  had  recovered  her  smile,  that 
sweet,  indefinable  smile  which  gave  so  much  charm  to  her 
serious,  almost  melancholy  face.  She  smiled  thus  for  the 
last  time  at  her  little  sister  Marie-Louise,  about  the  middle 
of  May,  lying  on  a  sofa  by  a  sunny  window. 

On  May  21,  her  doctor,  Dr.  Flesschutt,  wrote  to  Pasteur: 
"  If  the  interest  I  take  in  the  child  were  not  sufficient  to 
stimulate  my  efforts,  the  mother's  courage  would  keep  up 
my  hopes  and  double  my  ardent  desire  for  a  happy  issue." 
Cécile  died  on  May  23  after  a  sudden  relapse.  Pasteur 
only  arrived  at  Chambéry  in  time  to  take  to  Arbois  the 
remains  of  the  little  girl,  which  were  buried  near  those  of 
his  mother,  of  his  two  other  daughters,  Jeanne  and  Camille, 
and  of  his  father,  Joseph  Pasteur.  The  little  cemetery 
indeed  represented  a  cup  of  sorrows  for  Pasteur. 

"  Your  father  has  returned  from  his  sad  journey  to 
Arbois,"  wrote  Madame  Pasteur  from  Chambéry  to  her 
son,  who  was  at  school  in  Paris.  "I  did  think  of  going 
back  to  you,  but  I  could  not  leave  your  poor  father  to  go 
back  to  Alais  alone  after  this  great  sorrow."  Accompanied 
by  her  who  was  his  greatest  comfort,  and  who  gave  him 
some  of  her  own  courage,  Pasteur  came  back  to  the  Pont 
Gisquet  and  returned  to  his  work.  M.  Duclaux  in  his  turn 
joined  the  hard-working  little  party. 

171 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

At  the  beginning  of  June,  Duruy,  with  the  solicitude 
of  a  Minister  who  found  time  to  be  also  a  friend,  wrote 
affectionately  to  Pasteur — 

"  You  are  leaving  me  quite  in  the  dark,  yet  you  know 
the  interest  I  take  in  your  work.  Where  are  you?  and 
what  are  you  doing?  Finding  out  something,  I  feel 
certain.  ..." 

Pasteur  answered,  "  Monsieur  le  Ministre,  I  hasten  to 
thank  you  for  your  kind  reminder.  My  studies  have  been 
associated  with  sorrow  ;  perhaps  your  charming  little 
daughter,  who  used  to  play  sometimes  at  M.  Le  Verrier' s, 
will  remember  Cécile  Pasteur  among  other  little  girls  of 
her  age  that  she  used  to  meet  at  the  Observatoire.  My 
dear  child  was  coming  with  her  mother  to  spend  the  Easter 
holidays  with  me  at  Alais,  when,  during  a  few  days'  stay 
at  Chambéry,  she  was  seized  with  an  attack  of  typhoid 
fever,  to  which  she  succumbed  after  two  months  of  painful 
suffering.  I  was  only  able  to  be  with  her  for  a  few  days, 
being  kept  here  by  my  work,  and  full  of  deceiving  hopes 
for  a  happy  issue  from  that  terrible  disease. 

"  I  am  now  wholly  wrapped  up  in  my  studies,  which 
alone  take  my  thoughts  from  my  deep  sorrow. 

"  Thanks  to  the  facilities  which  you  have  put  in  my 
way,  I  have  been  able  to  collect  a  quantity  of  experimental 
observations,  and  I  think  I  understand  on  many  points  this 
disease  which  has  been  ruining  the  South  for  fifteen  or 
twenty  years.  I  shall  be  able  on  my  return  to  propose 
to  the  Commission  of  Sériciculture  a  practical  means  of 
fighting  the  evil  and  suppressing  it  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years. 

"  I  am  arriving  at  this  result  that  there  is  no  silkworm 
disease.  There  is  but  an  exaggeration  of  a  state  of  things 
which  has  always  existed,  and  it  is  not  difficult,  in  my 

172 


I865-I870 

view,  to  return  to  the  former  situation,  even  to  improve  on 
it.  The  evil  was  sought  for  in  the  worm  and  even  in  the 
seed  ;  that  was  something,  but  my  observations  prove  that 
it  develops  chiefly  in  the  chrysalis,  especially  in  the  mature 
chrysalis,  at  the  moment  of  the  moth's  formation,  on  the 
eve  of  the  function  of  reproduction.  The  microscope 
then  detects  its  presence  with  certitude,  even  when  the  seed 
and  the  worm  seem  very  healthy.  The  practical  result  is 
this  :  you  have  a  nursery  full  ;  it  has  been  successful  or  it 
has  not  ;  you  wish  to  know  whether  to  smother  the  cocoons 
or  whether  to  keep  them  for  reproduction.  Nothing  is 
simpler.  You  hasten  the  development  of  about  100  moths 
through  an  elevation  of  temperature,  and  you  examine 
these  moths  through  the  microscope,  which  will  tell  you 
what  to  do. 

"  The  sickly  character  is  then  so  easy  to  detect  that  a 
woman  or  a  child  can  do  it.  If  the  cultivator  should  be  a 
peasant,  without  the  material  conditions  required  for  this 
study,  he  can  do  this  :  instead  of  throwing  away  the  moths 
after  they  have  laid  their  eggs,  he  can  bottle  a  good  many 
of  them  in  brandy  and  send  them  to  a  testing  office  or  to 
some  experienced  person  who  will  determine  the  value  of 
the  seed  for  the  following  year." 

The  Japanese  Government  sent  some  cases  of  seed  sup- 
posed to  be  healthy  to  Napoleon  III,  who  distributed  them  in 
the  silkworm  growing  departments.  Pasteur,  in  the  mean- 
while, was  stating  the  results  he  had  arrived  at,  and  they 
were  being  much  criticized.  In  order  to  avoid  the  pébrine, 
which  was  indeed  the  disease  caused  by  the  corpuscles  so 
clearly  visible  through  the  microscope,  he  averred  that  no 
seed  should  be  used  that  came  from  infected  moths.  In 
order  to  demonstrate  the  infectious  character  of  the  pébrine 
he  would  give  to  some  worms  meals  of  leaves  previously 

173 


THE  LIFE  OF   PASTEUR 

contaminated  by  means  of  a  brush  dipped  in  water  contain- 
ing corpuscles.  The  worms  absorbed  the  food,  and  the 
disease  immediately  appeared  and  could  be  found  in  the 
chrysalides  and  moths  from  those  worms. 

"  I  hope  I  am  in  the  right  road — close  to  the  goal,  perhaps, 
but  I  have  not  yet  reached  it,"  wrote  Pasteur  to  his  faithful 
Chappuis  ;  "  and  as  long  as  the  final  proof  is  not  acquired 
complications  and  errors  are  to  be  feared.  Next  year,  the 
growth  of  the  numerous  eggs  I  have  prepared  will  obviate 
my  scruples,  and  I  shall  be  sure  of  the  value  of  the  preven- 
tive means  I  have  indicated.  It  is  tiresome  to  have  to  wait 
a  year  before  testing  observations  already  made  ;  but  I  have 
every  hope  of  success." 

While  awaiting  the  renewal  of  the  silkworm  season,  he 
was  busy  editing  his  book  on  wine,  full  of  joy  at  contribut- 
ing to  the  national  riches  through  practical  application  of 
his  observations.  It  was,  in  fact,  sufficient  to  heat  the 
wines  by  the  simple  process  already  at  that  time  known  in 
Austria  as  pasteurisation,  to  free  them  from  all  germs  of 
disease  and  make  them  suitable  for  keeping  and  for  expor- 
tation. He  did  not  accord  much  attention  to  the  talk  of  old 
gourmets  who  affirmed  that  wines  thus  "  mummified  "  could 
not  mellow  with  age,  being  convinced  on  the  contrary  that 
the  most  delicate  wines  could  only  be  improved  by  heating. 
"  The  ageing  of  wines,"  he  said,  "is  due,  not  to  fermentation, 
but  to  a  slow  oxidation  which  is  favoured  by  heat." 

He  alluded  in  his  book  to  the  interest  taken  by  Napoleon 
III  in  those  researches  which  might  be  worth  millions  to 
France.  He  also  related  how  the  Imperial  solicitude  had 
been  awakened,  and  acknowledged  gratitude  for  this  to 
General  Favé,  one  of  the  Emperor's  aides  de  camp. 

The  General,  on  reading  the  proofs,  declared  that  his 
name  must  disappear.    Pasteur  regretfully  gave  in  to  his 

174 


I865-I870 

scruples,  but  wrote  the  following  words  on  the  copy  pre- 
sented to  General  Favé  :  "  General,  this  book  contains  a 
serious  omission — that  of  your  name  :  it  would  be  an  un- 
pardonable one  had  it  not  been  made  at  your  own  request, 
according  to  your  custom  of  keeping  your  good  works 
secret.  Without  you,  these  studies  on  wine  would  not  exist  ; 
you  have  helped  and  encouraged  them.  Leave  me  at  least 
the  satisfaction  of  writing  that  name  on  the  first  page  of 
this  copy,  of  which  I  beg  you  to  accept  the  homage,  while 
renewing  the  expression  of  my  devoted  gratitude." 

Another  incident  gives  us  an  instance  of  Pasteur's  kind- 
ness of  heart.  In  the  year  1866  Claude  Bernard  suffered 
from  a  gastric  disease  so  serious  that  his  doctors,  Rayer 
and  Da  vaine,  had  to  admit  their  impotence.  Bernard  was 
obliged  to  leave  his  laboratory  and  retire  to  his  little  house 
at  St.  Julien  (near  Villefranche),  his  birthplace.  But  the 
charm  of  his  recollections  of  childhood  was  embittered  by 
present  sadness.  His  mind  full  of  projects,  his  life  threat- 
ened in  its  prime,  he  had  the  courage,  a  difficult  thing  to 
unselfish  people,  of  resolutely  taking  care  of  himself.  But 
preoccupied  solely  with  his  own  diet,  his  own  body  now  a 
subject  for  experiments,  he  became  a  prey  to  a  deep  melan- 
cholia. Pasteur,  knowing  to  what  extent  moral  influences 
react  on  the  physique,  had  the  idea  of  writing  a  review  of 
his  friend's  works,  and  published  it  in  the  Moniteur  Uni- 
versel of  November  7,  1866,  under  the  following  title  : 
Claude  Bernard  :  the  Importance  of  his  Works,  Teaching  and 
Method.  He  began  thus  :  "  Circumstances  have  recently 
caused  me  to  re-peruse  the  principal  treatises  which  have 
founded  the  reputation  of  our  great  physiologist,  Claude 
Bernard. 

"  I  have  derived  from  them  so  great  a  satisfaction,  and 
my  admiration  for  his  talent  has  been  confirmed  and  in- 

175 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

creased  to  such  an  extent  that  I  cannot  resist  the  somewhat 
rash  desire  of  communicating  my  impressions.  ..." 

Amongst  Claude  Bernard's  discoveries,  Pasteur  chose  that 
which  seemed  to  him  most  instructive,  and  which  Claude 
Bernard  himself  appreciated  most:  "When  M.  Bernard 
became  in  1854  ^  candidate  for  the  Académie  des  Sciences, 
his  discovery  of  the  glycogenic  functions  of  the  liver  was 
neither  the  first  nor  the  last  among  those  which  had  already 
placed  him  so  high  in  the  estimation  of  men  of  science  ;  yet 
it  was  by  that  one  that  he  headed  his  list  of  the  claims 
which  could  recommend  him  to  the  suffrages  of  the  illus- 
trious body.  That  preference  on  the  part  of  the  master 
decides  me  in  mine." 

Claude  Bernard  had  begun  by  meditating  deeply  on  the 
disease  known  as  diabetes  and  which  is  characterized,  as 
everybody  knows,  by  a  superabundance  of  sugar  in  the 
whole  of  the  organism,  the  urine  often  being  laden  with  it. 
But  how  is  it,  wondered  Claude  Bernard,  that  the  quantity 
of  sugar  expelled  by  a  diabetic  patient  can  so  far  surpass 
that  with  which  he  is  provided  by  the  starchy  or  sugary 
substances  which  form  part  of  his  food  ?  How  is  it  that 
the  presence  of  sugary  matter  in  the  blood  and  its  expulsion 
through  urine  are  never  completely  arrested,  even  when  all 
sugary  or  starchy  alimentation  is  suppressed  ?  Are  there 
in  the  human  organism  sugar-producing  phenomena  un- 
known to  chemists  and  physiologists  ?  All  the  notions  of 
science  were  contrary  to  that  mode  of  thinking;  it  was 
affirmed  that  the  vegetable  kingdom  only  could  produce 
sugar,  and  it  seemed  an  insane  hypothesis  to  suppose  that 
the  animal  organism  could  fabricate  any.  Claude  Bernard 
dwelt  upon  it  however,  his  principle  in  experimentation 
being  this  :  "  When  you  meet  with  a  fact  opposed  to 
a  prevailing  theory,  you  should  adhere  to  the  fact  and 

176  - 


I865-I870 

abandon  the  theory,  even  when  the  latter  is  supported  by 
great  authorities  and  generally  adopted." 

This  is  what  he  imagined,  summed  up  in  a  few  words  by 
Pasteur — 

"  Meat  is  an  aliment  which  cannot  develop  sugar  by  the 
digestive  process  known  to  us.  Now  M.  Bernard  having 
fed  some  carnivorous  animals  during  a  certain  time  exclu- 
sively with  meat,  he  assured  himself,  with  his  precise  know- 
ledge of  the  most  perfect  means  of  investigation  offered  him 
by  chemistry,  that  the  blood  which  enters  the  liver  by  the 
portal  vein  and  pours  into  it  the  nutritive  substances  pre- 
pared and  rendered  soluble  by  digestion  is  absolutely  devoid 
of  sugar  ;  whilst  the  blood  which  issues  from  the  liver  by 
the  hepatic  veins  is  always  abundantly  provided  with  it. 
.  .  .  M.  Claude  Bernard  has  also  thrown  full  light  on  the 
close  connection  which  exists  between  the  secretion  of 
sugar  in  the  liver  and  the  influence  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem. He  has  demonstrated,  with  a  rare  sagacity,  that  by 
acting  on  some  determined  portion  of  that  system  it  was 
possible  to  suppress  or  exaggerate  at  will  the  production  of 
sugar.  He  has  done  more  still  ;  he  has  discovered  within 
the  liver  the  existence  of  an  absolutely  new  substance 
which  is  the  natural  source  whence  this  organ  draws 
the  sugar  that  it  produces." 

Pasteur,  starting  from  this  discovery  of  Claude  Ber- 
nard's, spoke  of  the  growing  close  connection  between 
medicine  and  physiology.  Then,  with  his  constant  anxiety 
to  incite  students  to  enthusiasm,  he  recommended  them  to 
read  the  lectures  delivered  by  Bernard  at  the  Collège  de 
France.  Speaking  of  the  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Ex- 
perimental Medicine,  Pasteur  wrote  :  "  A  long  commentary 
would  be  necessary  to  present  this  splendid  work  to  the 
reader;  it  is  a  monument  raised  to  honour  the  method 

VOL.  I.  177  N 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

which  has  constituted  Physical  and  Chemical  Science  since 
Galileo  and  Newton,  and  which  M.  Bernard  is  trying 
to  introduce  into  physiology  and  pathology.  Nothing  so 
complete,  so  profound,  so  luminous  has  ever  been  written 
on  the  true  principles  of  the  difficult  art  of  experimenta- 
tion. .  .  .  This  book  will  exert  an  immense  influence  on 
medical  science,  its  teaching,  its  progress,  its  language 
even."  Pasteur  took  pleasure  in  adding  to  his  own  tri- 
bute praise  from  other  sources.  He  quoted,  for  instance, 
J.  B.  Dumas'  answer  to  Duruy,  who  asked  him,  "  What  do 
you  think  of  this  great  physiologist  ?"  "  He  is  not  a  great 
physiologist;  he  is  Physiology  itself."  "I  have  spoken  of 
the  man  of  science,"  continued  Pasteur.  "  I  might  have 
spoken  of  the  man  in  every-day  life,  the  colleague  who 
has  inspired  so  many  with  a  solid  friendship,  for  I  should 
seek  in  vain  for  a  weak  point  in  M.  Bernard;  it  is  not 
to  be  found.  His  personal  distinction,  the  noble  beauty  of 
his  physiognomy,  his  gentle  kindliness  attract  at  first 
sight  ;  he  has  no  pedantry,  none  of  a  scientist's  usual 
faults,  but  an  antique  simplicity,  a  perfectly  natural  and 
unaffected  manner,  while  his  conversation  is  deep  and  full 
of  ideas.  ..."  Pasteur,  after  informing  the  public  that 
the  graver  symptoms  of  Bernard's  disease  had  now  dis- 
appeared, ended  thus  :  "  May  the  publicity  now  given  to 
these  thoughts  and  feelings  cheer  the  illustrious  patient  in 
his  enforced  idleness,  and  assure  him  of  the  joy  with  which 
his  return  will  be  welcomed  by  his  friends  and  colleagues." 
The  very  day  after  this  article  reached  him  (November 
19,  i860)  Bernard  wrote  to  Pasteur:  "My  dear  friend, — 
I  received  yesterday  the  Moniteur  containing  the  superb 
article  you  have  written  about  me.  Your  great  praise 
indeed  makes  me  proud,  though  I  feel  I  am  yet  very  far 
from  the  goal  I  would  reach.    If  I  return  to  health,  as  I 

178 


I 865-1870 

now  hope  I  may  do,  I  think  I  shall  find  it  possible  to  pur- 
sue my  work  in  a  more  methodical  order  and  with  more 
complete  means  of  demonstration,  better  indicating  the 
general  idea  towards  which  my  various  efforts  converge. 
In  the  meanwhile  it  is  a  very  precious  encouragement  to 
me  to  be  approved  and  praised  by  a  man  such  as  you. 
Your  works  have  given  you  a  great  name,  and  have  placed 
you  in  the  first  rank  among  experimentalists  of  our  time. 
The  admiration  which  you  profess  for  me  is  indeed  recipro- 
cated ;  and  we  must  have  been  born  to  understand  each 
other,  for  true  science  inspires  us  both  with  the  same 
passion  and  the  same  sentiments. 

"Forgive  me  for  not  having  answered  your  first  letter; 
but  I  was  really  not  equal  to  writing  the  notice  you 
wanted.  I  have  deeply  felt  for  you  in  your  family 
sorrow  ;  I  have  been  through  the  same  trial,  and  I  can 
well  understand  the  sufferings  of  a  tender  and  delicate 
soul  such  as  yours." 

Henri  Sainte  Claire  Deville,  who  was  as  warm-hearted 
as  he  was  witty,  had,  on  his  side,  the  ingenious  idea  of  edit- 
ing an  address  of  collective  wishes  for  Claude  Bernard, 
who  answered  :  "  My  dear  friend, — You  are  evidently  as 
clever  in  inventing  friendly  surprises  as  in  making  great 
scientific  discoveries.  It  was  indeed  a  most  charming  idea, 
and  one  for  which  I  am  very  grateful  to  you — that  of  send- 
ing me  a  collective  letter  from  my  friends.  I  shall  care- 
fully preserve  that  letter:  first,  because  the  feelings  it 
expresses  are  very  dear  to  me;  and  also  because  it  is  a 
collection  of  illustrious  autographs  which  should  go  down 
to  posterity.  I  beg  you  will  transmit  my  thanks  to  our 
friends  and  colleagues,  E.  Renan,  A.  Maury,  F.  Ravaisson 
and  Bellaguet.  Tell  them  how  much  I  am  touched  by  their 
kind  wishes  and  congratulations  on  my  recovery.    It  is, 

179 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

alas,  not  yet  a  cure,  but   I  hope  I  am  on  a  fair  way 
to  it. 

"  I  have  received  the  article  Pasteur  has  written  about  me 
in  the  Moniteur  ;  that  article  paralysed  the  vasomotor  nerves 
of  my  sympathetic  system,  and  caused  me  to  blush  to  the 
roots  of  my  hair.  I  was  so  amazed  that  I  don't  know  what  I 
wrote  to  Pasteur  ;  but  I  did  not  dare  say  to  him  that  he  had 
wrongly  exaggerated  my  merits.  I  know  he  believes  all 
that  he  writes,  and  I  am  happy  and  proud  of  his  opinion, 
because  it  is  that  of  a  scientist  and  experimentalist  of  the 
very  first  rank.  Nevertheless,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that 
he  has  seen  me  through  the  prism  of  his  kindly  heart,  and 
that  I  do  not  deserve  such  excessive  praise.  I  am  more 
than  thankful  for  all  the  marks  of  esteem  and  friendship 
which  are  showered  upon  me.  They  make  me  cling  closer 
to  life,  and  feel  that  I  should  be  very  foolish  not  to  take 
care  of  myself  and  continue  to  live  amongst  those  who  love 
me,  and  who  deserve  my  love  for  all  the  happiness  they 
give  me.  I  intend  to  return  to  Paris  some  time  this  month, 
and,  in  spite  of  your  kind  advice,  I  should  like  to  take  up 
my  Collège  de  France  classes  again  this  winter.  I  hope  to 
be  allowed  not  to  begin  before  January.  But  we  shall  talk 
of  all  this  in  Paris.  I  remain  your  devoted  and  affectionate 
friend." 

To  end  this  academic  episode,  we  will  quote  from  Joseph 
Bertrand's  letter  of  thanks  to  Pasteur,  who  had  sent  him 
the  article  :  " .  .  .  The  public  will  learn,  among  other 
things,  that  the  eminent  members  of  the  Academy  admire 
and  love  each  other  sometimes  with  no  jealousy.  This  was 
rare  in  the  last  century,  and,  if  all  followed  your  example, 
we  should  have  over  our  predecessors  one  superiority 
worth  many  another." 

Thus  Pasteur  showed  himself  a  man  of  sentiment  as 

i8o 


I865-I870 

well  as  a  man  of  science  ;  the  circle  of  his  affections  was 
enlarging,  as  was  the  scope  of  his  researches,  but  without 
any  detriment  to  the  happy  family  life  of  his  own  intimate 
circle.  That  little  group  of  his  family  and  close  friends 
identified  itself  absolutely  with  his  work,  his  ideas  and  his 
hopes,  each  member  of  it  willingly  subordinating  his  or  her 
private  interests  to  the  success  of  his  investigations.  He 
was  at  that  time  violently  attacked  by  his  old  adversaries 
as  well  as  his  new  contradictors.  Pouchet  announced 
everywhere  that  the  question  of  spontaneous  generation 
was  being  taken  up  again  in  England,  in  Germany,  in 
Italy  and  in  America.  Joly,  Pouchet's  inseparable  friend, 
was  about  to  make  some  personal  studies  and  to  write  some 
general  considerations  on  the  new  silkworm  campaign. 
Pasteur,  who  had  confidently  said,  "  The  year  1867  must 
be  the  last  to  bear  the  complaints  of  silkworm  cultiva- 
tors !  "  went  back  to  Alais  in  January,  1867.  But,  before 
leaving  Paris,  Pasteur  wrote  out  for  himself  a  list  of 
various  improvements  and  reforms  which  he  desired  to 
effect  in  the  administration  of  the  Ecole  Normale,  show- 
ing that  his  interest  in  the  great  school  had  by  no  means 
abated,  in  spite  of  his  necessary  absence.  He  brought  with 
him  his  wife  and  daughter,  and  Messrs.  Gernez  and  Mail- 
lot ;  M.  Duclaux  was  to  come  later.  The  worms  hatched 
from  the  eggs  of  healthy  moths  and  those  from  diseased 
ones  were  growing  more  interesting  every  day  ;  they  were 
in  every  instance  exactly  what  Pasteur  had  prophesied 
they  would  be.  But  besides  studying  his  own  silkworms, 
he  liked  to  see  what  was  going  on  in  neighbouring  magna- 
neries. A  neighbour  in  the  Pont  Gisquet,  a  cultivator  of 
the  name  of  Cardinal,  had  raised  with  great  success  a 
brood  originating  from  the  famous  Japanese  seed.  He 
was  disappointed,  however,  in  the  eggs  produced  by  the 

181 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

moths,  and  Pasteur's  microscope  revealed  the  fact  that 
those  moths  were  all  corpuscled,  in  spite  of  their  healthy 
origin.  Pasteur  did  not  suspect  that  origin,  for  the  worms 
had  shown  health  and  vigour  through  all  their  stages  of 
growth,  and  seemed  to  have  issued  from  healthy  parents. 
But  Cardinal  had  raised  another  brood,  the  produce  of 
unsound  seed,  immediately  above  these  healthy  worms. 
The  excreta  from  this  second  brood  could  fall  on  to  the 
frames  of  those  below  them,  and  the  healthy  worms  had 
become  contaminated.  Pasteur  demonstrated  that  the 
pébrine  contagion  might  take  place  in  one  of  two  dif- 
ferent ways  :  either  from  direct  contact  between  the 
worms  on  the  same  frame,  or  by  the  soiling  of  the  food 
from  the  very  infectious  excreta.  The  remedy  for  the 
pébrine  seemed  now  found.  "  The  corpuscle  disease," 
said  Pasteur,  "is  as  easily  avoided  as  it  is  easily  con- 
tracted." But  when  he  thought  he  had  reached  his  goal 
a  sudden  difficulty  rose  in  his  way.  Out  of  sixteen  broods 
of  worms  which  he  had  raised,  and  which  presented  an 
excellent  appearance,  the  sixteenth  perished  almost  entirely 
immediately  after  the  first  moulting.  "  In  a  brood  of  a 
hundred  worms,"  wrote  Pasteur,  "I  picked  up  fifteen  or 
twenty  dead  ones  every  day,  black  and  rotting  with  extra- 
ordinary rapidity.  .  .  .  They  were  soft  and  flaccid  like  an 
empty  bladder.  I  looked  in  vain  for  corpuscles  ;  there  was 
not  a  trace  of  them." 

Pasteur  was  temporarily  troubled  and  discouraged.  But 
he  consulted  the  writings  of  former  students  of  silkworm 
diseases,  and,  when  he  discovered  vibriones  in  those  dead 
worms,  he  did  not  doubt  that  he  had  under  his  eyes  a  well 
characterized  example  of  the  flachery  disease — a  disease 
independent  and  distinct  from  the  pébrine.  He  wrote  to 
Duruy,    and    acquainted    him  with    the    results  he   had 

182 


I865-I870 

obtained  and  the  obstacles  he  encountered.    Duruy  wrote 
back  on  April  9,  1867 — 

"  Thank  you  for  your  letter  and  the  good  news  it 
contains. 

"  Not  very  far  from  you,  at  Avignon,  a  statue  has  been 
erected  to  the  Persian  who  imported  into  France  the  culti- 
vation of  madder;  what  then  will  not  be  done  for  the 
rescuer  of  two  of  our  greatest  industries  !  Do  not  forget  to 
inform  me  when  you  have  mastered  the  one  or  two  lame 
facts  which  still  stand  in  the  way.  As  a  citizen,  as  head  of 
the  Université,  and,  if  I  may  say  so,  as  your  friend,  I  wish 
I  could  follow  your  experiments  day  by  day. 

"  You  know  that  I  should  like  to  found  a  special  college 
at  Alais.  Please  watch  for  any  useful  information  on  that 
subject.    We  will  talk  about  it  on  your  return. 

"  I  am  obliged  to  M.  Gernez  for  his  assiduous  and  intelli- 
gent collaboration  with  you." 

This  letter  from  the  great  Minister  is  all  the  more  in- 
teresting that  it  is  dated  from  the  eve  of  the  day  when  the 
law  on  the  reorganization  of  primary  teaching  was  pro- 
mulgated. 

The  introduction  into  the  curriculum  of  historical  and 
geographical  notions  ;  the  inauguration  of  10,000  schools 
and  30,000  adult  classes  ;  the  transformation  of  certain 
flagging  classical  colleges  into  technical  training  schools  ; 
a  constant  struggle  to  include  the  teaching  of  girls  in 
Université  organization;  reforms  and  improvements  in 
general  teaching;  the  building  of  laboratories,  etc.,  etc. — 
into  the  accomplishment  of  all  these  projects  Duruy 
carried  his  bold  and  methodical  activity.  No  one  was  more 
suited  than  he  to  the  planning  out  of  a  complete  system  of 
national  education.  He  and  Pasteur  were  indeed  fitted  to 
understand  each  other,  for  each  had  in  the  same  degree 

183 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

those  three  forms  of  patriotism:  love  for  the  land,  memories 
for  the  past,  and  hero  worship. 

In  May,  1867,  Pasteur  received  at  Alais  the  news  that  a 
grand  prize  medal  of  the  1867  exhibition  was  conferred 
upon  him  for  his  works  on  wines.  He  hastened  to  write 
to  Dumas — 

"  My  dear  master,  .  .  .  Nothing  has  surprised  me  more, 
— or  so  agreeably, — than  the  news  of  this  Exhibition  prize 
medal,  which  I  was  far  from  expecting.  It  is  a  new  proof 
of  your  kindness,  for  I  feel  sure  that  I  have  to  thank  you 
for  originating  such  a  favour.  I  shall  do  all  I  can  to  make 
myself  worthy  of  it  by  my  perseverance  in  putting  all  diffi- 
culties aside  from  the  subject  I  am  now  engaged  in,  and  in 
which  the  light  is  growing  brighter  every  day.  If  that 
flachery  disease  had  not  come  to  complicate  matters,  every- 
thing would  be  well  by  now.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  abso- 
lutely sure  I  now  feel  of  my  conclusions  concerning  the 
corpuscle  disease.  I  could  say  a  great  deal  about  the 
articles  of  Messrs.  Béchamp,  Estor  and  Balbiani,  but  I  will 
follow  your  advice  and  answer  nothing  ..." 

Dumas  had  been  advising  Pasteur  not  to  waste  his 
time  by  answering  his  adversaries  and  contradictors. 
Pasteur's  system  was  making  way  ;  ten  miscroscopes  were 
set  up,  here  and  there,  in  the  town  of  Alais  ;  most  seed 
merchants  were  taking  up  the  examination  of  the  dead 
moths,  and  the  Pont-Gisquet  colony  had  samples  brought 
in  daily  for  inspection.  "  I  have  already  prevented  many 
failures  for  next  year,"  he  wrote  to  Dumas  (June,  1867), 
but  I  always  beg  as  a  favour  that  a  little  of  the  condemned 
seed  may  be  raised,  so  as  to  confirm  the  exactness  of  my 
judgment." 

His  system  was  indeed  quite  simple  ;  at  the  moment 
when  the  moths  leave  their  cocoons  and  mate  with  each 

184 


I865-I870 

other,  the  cultivator  separates  them  and  places  each  female 
on  a  little  square  of  linen  where  it  lays  its  eggs.  The  moth 
is  afterwards  pinned  up  in  a  corner  of  the  same  square  of 
linen,  where  it  gradually  dries  up  ;  later  on,  in  autumn  or 
even  in  winter,  the  withered  moth  is  moistened  in  a  little 
water,  pounded  in  a  mortar,  and  the  'paste  examined  with 
a  microscope.  If  the  least  trace  of  corpuscles  appears  the 
linen  is  burnt,  together  with  the  seed  which  would  have 
perpetuated  the  disease. 

Pasteur  came  back  to  Paris  to  receive  his  medal  ;  perhaps 
his  presence  was  not  absolutely  necessary,  but  he  did  not 
question  the  summons  he  received.  He  always  attached  an 
absolute  meaning  to  words  and  to  things,  not  being  one  of 
those  who  accept  titles  and  homage  with  an  inward  and 
ironical  smile. 

The  pageant  of  that  distribution  of  prizes  was  well  worth 
seeing,  and  July  i,  1867,  is  now  remembered  by  many  who 
were  children  at  that  time.  Paris  afforded  a  beautiful 
spectacle  ;  the  central  avenue  of  the  Tuileries  garden,  the 
Place  de  la  Concorde,  the  Avenue  des  Champs  Elysées,  were 
lined  along  their  full  length  by  regiments  of  infantry, 
dragoons,  Imperial  Guards,  etc.,  etc.,  standing  motionless 
in  the  bright  sunshine,  waiting  for  the  Emperor  to  pass. 
The  Imperial  carriage,  drawn  by  eight  horses,  escorted  by 
the  Cent-Gardes  in  their  pale  blue  uniform,  and  by  the 
Lancers  of  the  Household,  advanced  in  triumphant  array. 
Napoleon  III.  sat  next  to  the  Empress,  the  Prince  Imperial 
and  Prince  Napoleon  facing  them.  From  the  Palais  de 
l'Elysée,  amidst  equally  magnificent  ceremonial,  the  Sultan 
Abdul- Aziz  and  his  son  arrived  ;  then  followed  a  procession 
of  foreign  princes:  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia,  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  Prince  Humbert  of  Italy,  the  Duke  and  Duchess 
of  Aosta,  the  Grand  Duchess  Marie  of  Russia,  all  of  whom 

185 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

have  since  borne  a  part  in  European  politics.  They 
entered  the  Palais  de  l'Industrie  and  sat  around  the  throne. 
From  the  ground  to  the  first  floor  an  immense  stand 
was  raised,  affording  seats  for  17,000  persons.  The  walls 
were  decorated  with  eagles  bearing  olive  branches,  sym- 
bolical of  strength  and  peace.  The  Emperor  in  his  speech 
dwelt  upon  these  hopes  of  peace,  whilst  the  Empress 
in  white  satin,  wearing  a  diadem,  and  surrounded  by 
white-robed  princesses,  brightly  smiled  at  these  happy 
omens. 

On  their  names  being  called  out,  the  candidates  who  had 
won  Grand  Prizes,  and  those  about  to  be  promoted  in  the 
Legion  of  Honour,  went  up  one  by  one  to  the  throne. 
Marshal  Vaillant  handed  each  case  to  the  Emperor,  who 
himself  gave  it  to  the  recipient.  This  old  Field-Marshal, 
with  his  rough  bronzed  face,  who  had  been  a  captain  in 
the  retreat  from  Moscow  and  was  now  a  Minister  of 
Napoleon  III,  seemed  a  natural  and  glorious  link  between 
the  First  and  the  Second  Empires.  He  was  born  at  Dijon 
in  humble  circumstances,  of  which  he  was  somewhat  proud, 
a  very  cultured  soldier,  interested  in  scientific  things,  a 
member  of  the  Institute.  The  names  of  certain  members 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour  promoted  to  a  higher  rank,  such 
as  Gérôme  and  Meissonnier,  that  of  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps, 
rewarded  for  the  achievement  of  the  Suez  Canal,  excited 
great  applause.  Pasteur  was  called  without  provoking  an 
equal  curiositj^  :  his  scientific  discoveries,  in  spite  of  their 
industrial  applications,  being  as  yet  known  but  to  a  few. 
"I  was  struck,"  writes  an  eye  witness,  "with  his  simpli- 
city and  gravity  ;  the  seriousness  of  his  life  was  visible  in 
his  stern,  almost  sad  eyes." 

At  the  end  of  the  ceremony,  when  the  Imperial  proces- 
sion left  the  Palais   de  l'Industrie,   an  immense  chorus 

186 


I865-I870 

accompanied  by  an  orchestra,  sang  Domine  salvum  fac 
imperatorem. 

On  his  return  to  his  study  in  the  Rue  d'Ulm,  Pasteur 
again  took  up  the  management  of  the  scientific  studies  of 
the  Ecole  Normale.  But  an  incident  put  an  end  to  his 
directorship,  while  bringing  perturbation  into  the  whole  of 
the  school.  Sainte  Beuve  was  the  indirect  cause  of  this 
small  revolution.  The  Senate,  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
had  had  to  examine  a  protest  from  102  inhabitants  of  St. 
Etienne  against  the  introduction  into  their  popular  libraries 
of  the  works  of  Voltaire,  J.  J.  Rousseau,  Balzac,  E.  Renan, 
and  others.  The  committee  had  approved  this  petition  in 
terms  which  identified  the  report  with  the  petition  itself. 
Sainte  Beuve,  too  exclusively  literary  in  his  tastes,  and 
too  radical  in  his  opinions  to  be  popular  in  the  Senate,  rose 
violently  against  this  absolute  and  arbitrary  judgment, 
forgetting  everything  but  the  jeopardy  of  free  opinions 
before  the  excessive  and  inquisitorial  zeal  of  the  Senate. 
His  speech  was  very  unfavourably  received,  and  one  of  his 
colleagues,  M.  Lacaze,  aged  sixty-eight,  challenged  him  to 
a  duel.  Sainte  Beuve,  himself  then  sixty-three  years  old, 
refused  to  enter  into  what  he  called  "  the  summary  juris- 
prudence which  consists  in  strangling  a  question  and  sup- 
pressing a  man  within  forty-eight  hours." 

The  students  of  the  Ecole  Normale  deputed  one  of  their 
number  to  congratulate  Sainte  Beuve  on  his  speech,  and 
wrote  the  following  letter — 

"We  have  already  thanked  you  for  defending  freedom 
of  thought  when  misjudged  and  attacked;  now  that  you 
have  again  pleaded  for  it,  we  beg  you  to  receive  our  re- 
newed thanks. 

"We  should  be  happy  if  the  expression  of  our  grateful 
sympathy  could  console  you  for  this  injustice.    Courage  is 

187 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

indeed  required  to  speak  in  the  Senate  in  favour  of  the 
independence  and  the  rights  of  thought  ;  but  the  task  is  all 
the  more  glorious  for  being  more  difficult.  Addresses  are 
now  being  sent  from  everywhere;  you  will  forgive  the 
students  of  the  Ecole  Normale  for  having  followed  the 
general  lead  and  having  sent  their  address  to  M.  Sainte 
Beuve." 

This  letter  was  published  in  a  newspaper.  Etienne  Arago 
published  it  without  remembering  the  Université  by-laws 
which  forbade  every  sort  of  political  manifestation  to 
the  students.  It  had  given  pleasure  to  Sainte  Beuve,  the 
pleasure  that  elderly  men  take  in  the  applause  of  youth  ;  but 
he  soon  became  uneasy  at  the  results  of  this  noisy  publicity. 

Nisard,  the  Director  of  the  school,  could  not  very  well 
tolerate  this  breach  of  discipline.  In  spite  of  the  entreaties 
of  Sainte  Beuve,  the  student  who  had  signed  the  letter  was 
provisionally  sent  back  to  his  family.  His  comrades  revolted 
at  this  and  imperiously  demanded  his  immediate  restoration. 
Pasteur  attempted  to  pacify  them  by  speaking  to  them,  but 
failed  utterly;  his  influence  was  very  great  over  his  own 
pupils,  the  students  on  the  scientific  side,  but  the  others, 
the  ^littéraires, '^  were  the  most  violent  on  this  question, 
and  he  was  not  diplomatic  and  conciliating  enough  to  bring 
them  round.  They  rose  in  a  body,  marched  to  the  door, 
and  the  whole  school  was  soon  parading  the  streets.  "  Be- 
fore such  disorder,"  concluded  the  Moniteur,  relating  the 
incident  (July  lo),  "  the  authorities  were  obliged  to  order 
an  immediate  closure.  The  school  will  be  reconstituted 
and  the  classes  will  reopen  on  October  15." 

Both  the  literary  and  the  political  world  were  temporarily 
agitated  ;  the  Minister  was  interviewed.  M.  Thiers  wrote 
to  Pasteur  on  July  10  :  "My  dear  M.  Pasteur, — I  have  been 
talking  with  some  members  of  the  Left,  and  I  am  certain, 

188 


I 865- I 870 

or  almost  certain,  that  the  Ecole  Normale  affair  will  be 
smoothed  over  in  the  interest  of  the  students.  M.  Jules 
Simon  intends  to  work  in  that  direction  ;  keep  this 
information  for  yourself,  and  do  the  best  you  can  on  your 
side." 

At  the  idea  that  the  Ecole  was  about  to  be  reconstituted, 
that  is,  that  the  three  great  chiefs,  Nisard,  Pasteur  and 
Jacquinet  would  be  changed,  deep  regret  was  manifested 
by  Pasteur's  scientific  students.  One  of  them,  named 
Didon,  expressed  it  in  these  terms  :  "If  your  departure 
from  the  school  is  not  definitely  settled,  if  it  is  yet  possible 
to  prevent  it,  all  the  students  of  the  Ecole  will  be  only  too 
happy  to  do  everything  in  their  power.  ...  As  for  me, 
it  is  impossible  to  express  my  gratitude  towards  you.  No 
one  has  ever  shown  me  so  much  interest,  and  never  in  my 
life  shall  I  forget  what  you  have  done  for  me." 

Pasteur's  interest  in  young  men,  his  desire  to  excite  in 
them  scientific  curiosity  and  enthusiasm,  were  now  so  well 
known  that  Didon  and  several  others  who  had  successfully 
passed  the  entrance  examinations  both  for  the  Ecole  Poly- 
technique  and  the  Ecole  Normale,  had  chosen  to  enter  the 
latter  in  order  to  be  under  him  ;  by  the  Normaliens  of  the 
scientific  section,  he  was  not  only  understood  and  admired, 
but  beloved,  almost  worshipped. 

Sainte  Beuve,  who  continued  to  be  much  troubled  at  the 
consequences  of  his  speech,  wrote  to  the  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction  in  favour  of  the  rusticated  student.  Duruy 
thought  so  much  of  Sainte  Beuve  that  the  student,  instead 
of  being  exiled  to  some  insignificant  country  school,  was 
made  professor  of  seconde  in  the  college  of  Sens.  But  it 
was  specified  that  in  the  future  no  letter  should  be  written, 
no  public  responsibility  taken  in  the  name  of  the  Ecole 
without  the  authorization  of  the  director. 

189 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Nisard  left  ;  Dumas  had  just  been  made  President  of  the 
Monetary  Commission,  thus  leaving  vacant  a  place  as 
Inspector-General  of  Higher  Education.  Duruy,  anxious 
to  do  Pasteur  justice,  thought  this  post  most  suitable  to  him 
as  it  would  allow  him  to  continue  his  researches.  The 
decree  was  about  to  be  signed,  when  Balard,  professor  of 
chemistry  at  the  Faculty  of  Sciences,  applied  for  the  post. 
Pasteur  wrote  respectfully  to  the  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction  (July  31)  :  "  Your  Excellency  must  know  that 
twenty  years  ago,  when  I  left  the  Ecole  Normale,  I  was 
made  a  curator,  thanks  to  M.  Balard,  who  was  then  a 
professor  at  the  Ecole  Normale.  A  grateful  pupil  cannot 
enter  into  competition  with  a  revered  master,  especially  for 
a  post  where  considerations  of  age  and  experience  should 
have  great  weight." 

When  Pasteur  spoke  of  his  masters,  dead  or  living,  Biot 
or  Senarmont,  Dumas  or  Balard,  it  might  indeed  have  been 
thought  that  to  them  alone  he  owed  it  that  he  was  what  he 
was.  He  was  heard  on  this  occasion,  and  Balard  obtained 
the  appointment. 

Nisard  was  succeeded  by  M.  F.  Bouillier,  whose  place  as 
Inspector-General  of  Secondary  Education  devolved  on 
M.  Jacquinet.  The  directorship  of  scientific  studies  was 
given  to  Pasteur's  old  and  excellent  friend,  the  faithful 
Bertin.  After  teaching  in  Alsace  for  eighteen  years,  he  had 
become  maître  des  conférences  at  the  Ecole  Normale  in  1866, 
and  also  assistant  of  Regnault  at  the  Collège  de  France. 
It  had  only  been  by  dint  of  much  persuasion  that  Pasteur 
had  enticed  him  to  Paris.  "  What  is  the  good  ?  "  said  the 
unambitious  Bertin  ;  "  beer  is  not  so  good  in  Paris  as  in 
Strasburg.  .  .  .  Pasteur  does  not  understand  life;  he  is 
a  genius,  that  is  all!"  But,  under  this  apparent  indolence, 
Bertin  was  possessed  of  the  taste  for  and  the  art  of  teaching  ; 

190 


I865-I870 

Pasteur  knew  this,  and,  when  Bertin  was  appointed,  Pasteur's 
fears  for  the  scientific  future  of  his  beloved  Ecole  were 
abated.  Duruy,  much  regretting  the  break  of  Pasteur's 
connection  with  the  great  school,  offered  him  the  post  of 
maître  des  conférences,  besides  the  chair  of  chemistry 
which  Balard's  appointment  had  left  vacant  at  the  Sorbonne. 
But  Pasteur  declined  the  tempting  offer  ;  he  knew  the  care 
and  trouble  that  his  public  lectures  cost  him,  and  felt  that 
the  two  posts  would  be  beyond  his  strength  ;  if  his  time 
were  taken  up  by  that  double  task  it  would  be  almost 
impossible  for  him  to  pursue  his  private  researches,  which 
under  no  circumstances  would  he  abandon. 

He  carried  his  scruples  so  far  as  to  give  up  his  chemistry 
professorship  at  the  School  of  Fine  Arts,  where  he  had  been 
lecturing  since  1863.  He  had  endeavoured  in  his  lessons  to 
draw  the  attention  of  his  artist  pupils,  who  came  from  so 
many  distant  places,  to  the  actual  principles  of  Science. 
"Let  us  always  make  application  our  object,"  he  said, 
"  but  resting  on  the  stern  and  solid  basis  of  scientific  prin- 
ciples. Without  those  principles,  application  is  nothing 
more  than  a  series  of  recipes  and  constitutes  what  is  called 
routine.  Progress  with  routine  is  possible,  but  desperately 
slow." 

Another  reason  prevented  him  from  accepting  the  post 
off"ered  him  at  the  Ecole  Normale  ;  this  was  that  the  tiny 
pavilion  which  he  had  made  his  laboratory  was  much  too 
small  and  too  inconvenient  to  accommodate  the  pupils  he 
would  have  to  teach.  The  only  suitable  laboratory  at  the 
Ecole  was  that  of  his  friend,  Htnri  Sainte  Claire  Deville, 
and  Pasteur  was  reluctant  to  invade  it.  He  had  a  great 
affection  for  his  brilliant  colleague,  who  was  indeed  a 
particularly  charming  man,  still  youthful  in  spite  of  his 
forty-nine  summers,  active,  energetic,  witty.     "  I  have  no 

191 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

wit,"  Pasteur  would  say  quite  simply.  Deville  was  a  great 
contrast  to  his  two  great  friends,  Pasteur  and  Claude 
Bernard,  with  their  grave  meditative  manner.  He  enjoyed 
boarding  at  the  Ecole  and  having  his  meals  at  the  students' 
table,  where  his  gaiety  brightened  and  amused  everybody, 
effacing  the  distance  between  masters  and  pupils  and  yet 
never  losing  by  this  familiar  attitude  a  particle  of  the  respect 
he  inspired. 

Sometimes,  however,  when  preoccupied  with  the  heavy 
expenses  of  his  laboratory,  he  would  invite  himself  to  lunch 
with  Duruy,  from  whom — as  from  the  Emperor  or  any  one 
else — he  usually  succeeded  in  coaxing  what  he  wanted.  The 
general  state  of  things  connected  with  higher  education  was 
at  that  time  most  deplorable.  The  Sorbonne  was  as 
Richelieu  had  left  it — the  Museum  was  sadly  inadequate. 
At  the  Collège  de  France,  it  was  indeed  impossible  to  call 
by  the  name  of  laboratory  the  narrow,  damp  and  unhealthy 
cellars,  which  Claude  Bernard  called  "  scientists'  graves," 
and  where  he  had  contracted  the  long  illness  from  which  he 
was  only  just  recovering. 

Duruy  understood  and  deplored  this  penury,  but  his  voice 
was  scarcely  heard  in  cabinet  councils,  the  other  ministers 
being  absorbed  in  politics.  Pasteur,  whose  self-effacing 
modesty  disappeared  when  the  interests  of  science  were  in 
question,  presented  to  Napoleon,  through  the  medium  of 
his  enlightened  aide  de  camp,  General  Favé,  the  following 
letter,  a  most  interesting  one,  for,  in  it,  possibilities  of  future 
discoveries  are  hinted  at,  which  later  became  accomplished 
facts. 

"Sire, — My  researches  on  fermentations  and  on  micro- 
scopic organisms  have  opened  to  physiological  chemistry 
new  roads,  the  benefit  of  which  is  beginning  to  be  felt  both 
by  agricultural  industries  and  by  medical  studies.    But  the 

192 


I865-I870 

field  still  to  be  explored  is  immense.  My  great  desire 
would  be  to  explore  it  with  a  new  ardour,  unrestrained  by 
the  insufficiency  of  material  means. 

"  I  should  wish  to  have  a  spacious  laboratory,  with  one 
or  two  outhouses  attached  to  it,  which  I  could  make  use  of 
when  making  experiments  possibly  injurious  to  health,  such 
as  might  be  the  scientific  study  of  putrid  and  infectious 
diseases. 

"How  can  researches  be  attempted  on  gangrene,  virus  or 
inoculations,  without  a  building  suitable  for  the  housing  of 
animals,  either  dead  or  alive  ?  Butchers'  meat  in  Europe 
reaches  an  exorbitant  price,  in  Buenos  Ayres  it  is  given 
away.  How,  in  a  small  and  incomplete  laboratory,  can 
experiments  be  made,  and  various  processes  tested,  which 
would  facilitate  its  transport  and  preservation?  The  so- 
called  "splenic  fever"  costs  the  Beauce^  about  4,000,000 
francs  annually  ;  it  would  be  indispensable  to  go  and  spend 
some  weeks  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Chartres  during  several 
consecutive  summers,  and  make  minute  observations. 

"These  researches  and  a  thousand  others  which  corre- 
spond in  my  mind  to  the  great  act  of  transformation  after 
death  of  organic  matter,  and  the  compulsory  return  to  the 
ground  and  atmosphere  of  all  which  has  once  been  living, 
are  only  compatible  with  the  installation  of  a  great  labora- 
tory. The  time  has  now  come  when  experimental  science 
should  be  freed  from  its  bonds  ..." 

The  Emperor  wrote  to  Duruy  the  very  next  day,  desiring 
that  Pasteur's  wish  should  be  acceded  to.  Duruy  gladly 
acquiesced  and  plans  began  to  be  drawn  out.    Pasteur,  who 

^  Ancient  name  of  the  high  flat  ground  surrounding  Chartres  and 
including  parts  of  the  Departments  of  Eure  et  Loir,  Loir  et  Cher,  Loiret 
and  Seine  et  Oise.  These  plains  are  very  fertile,  the  soil  being  extremely 
rich,  and  produce  cereals  chiefly.     [Trans.] 

VOL.    I.  193  O 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

scarcely  dared  believe  in  these  bright  hopes,  was  consulted 
about  the  situation,  size,  etc.,  of  the  future  building,  and 
looked  forward  to  obtaining  the  help  of  Raulin,  his  former 
pupil,  when  he  had  room  enough  to  experiment  on  a  larger 
scale.  The  proposed  site  was  part  of  the  garden  of  the 
Ecole  Normale,  where  the  pavilion  already  existing  could 
be  greatly  added  to. 

In  the  meanwhile  Pasteur  was  interviewed  by  the  Mayor 
and  the  President  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  Orleans, 
who  begged  him  to  come  to  Orleans  and  give  a  public 
lecture  on  the  results  of  his  studies  on  vinegar.  He  consented 
with  pleasure,  ever  willing  to  attempt  awakening  the 
interest  of  the  public  in  his  beloved  Science — "Science, 
which  brings  man  nearer  to  God." 

It  was  on  the  Monday,  November  ii,  at  7.30  p.m.,  that 
Pasteur  entered  the  lecture  room  at  Orleans.  A  great  many 
vinegar  manufacturers,  some  doctors,  apothecaries,  profes- 
sors, students,  even  ladies,  had  come  to  hear  him.  An 
account  in  a  contemporary  local  paper  gives  us  a  description 
of  the  youngest  member  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences  as 
he  appeared  before  the  Orleans  public.  He  is  described  as 
of  a  medium  height,  his  face  pale,  his  eyes  very  bright 
through  his  glasses,  scrupulously  neat  in  his  dress,  with  a 
tiny  Legion  of  Honour  rosette  in  his  button  hole. 

He  began  his  lecture  with  the  following  simple  words  : 
"  The  Mayor  and  the  President  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
having  heard  that  I  had  studied  the  fermentation  which 
produces  vinegar,  have  asked  me  to  lay  before  the  vinegar 
makers  of  this  town  the  results  of  my  work.  I  have 
hastened  to  comply  with  their  request,  fully  sharing  in 
the  desire  which  instigated  it,  that  of  being  useful  to  an 
industry  which  is  one  of  the  sources  of  the  fortune  of  your 
city  and  of  your  department." 

194 


I865-I870 

He  tried  to  make  them  understand  scientifically  the  well 
known  fact  of  the  transformation  of  wine  into  vinegar. 
He  showed  that  all  the  work  came  from  a  little  plant,  a 
microscopic  fungus,  the  mycoderma  aceti.  After  exhibiting 
an  enlarged  picture  of  that  mycoderma,  Pasteur  explained 
that  the  least  trace  of  that  little  vinegar-making  plant, 
sown  on  the  surface  of  any  alcoholic  and  slightly  acid 
liquid,  was  sufficient  to  produce  a  prodigious  extension  of 
it;  in  summer  or  artificial  heat,  said  Pasteur,  a  surface 
of  liquid  of  the  same  area  as  the  Orleans  Lecture  room 
could  be  covered  in  forty-eight  hours.  The  mycodermic 
veil  is  sometimes  smooth  and  hardly  visible,  sometimes 
wrinkled  and  a  little  greasy  to  the  touch.  The  fatty  matter 
which  accompanies  the  development  of  the  plant  keeps  it 
on  the  surface,  air  being  necessary  to  the  plant  ;  it  would 
otherwise  perish  and  the  acetification  would  be  arrested. 
Thus  floating,  the  mycoderma  absorbs  oxygen  from  the  air 
and  fixes  it  on  the  alcohol,  which  becomes  transformed  into 
acetic  acid. 

Pasteur  explained  all  the  details  in  his  clear  powerful 
voice.  Why,  in  an  open  bottle,  does  wine  left  to  itself 
become  vinegar?  Because,  thanks  to  the  air,  and  to  the 
mycoderma  aceti  (which  need  never  be  sown,  being  ever 
mixed  with  the  invisible  dusts  in  the  air),  the  chemical 
transformation  of  wine  into  vinegar  can  take  place.  Why 
does  not  a  full,  closed  bottle  become  acetified  ?  Because  the 
mycoderma  cannot  multiply  in  the  absence  of  air.  Wine 
and  air  heated  in  the  same  vessel  will  not  become  sour,  the 
high  temperature  having  killed  the  germs  of  mycoderma 
aceti  both  in  the  wine  itself  and  in  the  dusts  suspended  in 
the  air.  But,  if  a  vessel  containing  wine  previously  heated 
is  exposed  to  the  free  contact  of  ordinary  air,  the  wine 
may  become  sour,  for,  though  the  germs  in  the  wine  have 

195 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

been  killed,  other  germs  may  fall  into  it  from  the  air  and 

develop. 

Finally,  if  pure  alcoholized  water  does  not  become  aceti- 
fied, though  germs  can  drop  into  it  from  the  air,  it  is 
because  it  does  not  offer  to  those  germs  the  food  necessary 
to  the  plant — food  which  is  present  in  wine  but  not  in 
alcoholized  water.  But  if  a  suitable  aliment  for  the  little 
plant  is  added  to  the  water,  acetification  takes  place. 

When  the  acetification  is  complete,  the  mycoderma,  if  not 
submerged,  continues  to  act,  and,  when  not  arrested  in  time, 
its  oxidating  power  becomes  dangerous;  having  no  more 
alcohol  to  act  upon,  it  ends  by  transforming  acetic  acid 
itself  into  water  and  carbonic  acid  gas,  and  the  work  of 
death  and  destruction  is  thus  achieved. 

Speaking  of  that  last  phase  of  the  mycoderma  aceti,  he 
went  on  to  general  laws — laws  of  the  universe  by  which  all 
that  has  lived  must  disappear.  "  It  is  an  absolute  neces- 
sity that  the  matter  of  which  living  beings  are  formed 
should  return  after  their  death  to  the  ground  and  to  the 
atmosphere  in  the  shape  of  mineral  or  gaseous  substances, 
such  as  steam,  carbonic  acid  gas,  ammoniac  gas  or  nitro- 
gen— simple  principles  easily  displaced  by  movements  of 
the  atmosphere  and  in  which  life  is  again  enabled  to  seek 
the  elements  of  its  indefinite  perpetuity.  It  is  chiefly 
through  acts  of  fermentation  and  slow  combustion  that  this 
law  of  dissolution  and  return  to  a  gaseous  state  is  accom- 
plished." 

Coming  back  to  his  special  subject,  he  pointed  out  to 
vinegar  manufacturers  the  cause  of  certain  failures  and  the 
danger  of  certain  errors. 

It  was  imagined  for  instance  that  some  microscopic 
beings,  anguillulse,  of  which  Pasteur  projected  an  enlarged 
wriggling  image  on  the  screen,  and  which  were  to  be 

196 


I865-I870 

found  in  the  tubs  of  some  Orleans  vinegar  works,  were  of 
some  practical  utility.  Pasteur  explained  their  injurious 
character  :  as  they  require  air  to  live,  and  as  the  myco- 
derma,  in  order  to  accomplish  its  work,  is  equally  dependent 
on  oxygen,  a  struggle  takes  place  between  the  anguillulae 
and  the  mycoderma.  If  acetification  is  successful,  if  the 
mycoderma  spreads  and  invades  everything,  the  vanquished 
anguillulse  are  obliged  to  take  refuge  against  the  sides  of 
the  barrel,  from  which  their  little  living  army  watches  the 
least  accidental  break  of  the  veil.  Pasteur,  armed  with  a 
magnifying  glass,  had  many  times  witnessed  the  struggle 
for  life  which  takes  place  between  the  little  fungi  and  the 
tiny  animals,  each  fighting  for  the  surface  of  the  liquid. 
Sometimes,  gathering  themselves  into  masses,  the  anguil- 
lulse  succeed  in  sinking  a  fragment  of  the  mycodermic 
veil  and  victoriously  destroying  the  action  of  the  drowned 
plants. 

Pasteur  related  all  this  in  a  vivid  manner,  evidently 
happy  that  his  long  and  delicate  laboratory  researches 
should  now  pass  into  the  domain  of  industry.  He  had  been 
pleased  to  find  that  some  Orleans  wine  merchants  heated 
wine  according  to  his  advice  in  order  to  preserve  it  ;  and 
he  now  informed  them  that  the  temperature  of  55°  C. 
which  killed  germs  and  vegetations  in  wine  could  be  ap- 
plied with  equal  success  to  vinegar  after  it  was  produced. 
The  active  germs  of  the  mycoderma  aceti  were  thus 
arrested  at  the  right  moment,  the  anguillulse  were  killed 
and  the  vinegar  remained  pure  and  unaltered.  "  Nothing," 
concluded  Pasteur,  *'  is  more  agreeable  to  a  man  who  has 
made  science  his  career  than  to  increase  the  number  of 
discoveries,  but  his  cup  of  joy  is  full  when  the  result  of  his 
observations  is  put  to  immediate  practical  use." 

This  year  1867  marks  a  specially  interesting  period  in 

197 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Pasteur's  life.  At  Alais  he  had  shown  himself  an  incom- 
parable observer,  solely  preoccupied  with  the  silkworm 
disease,  thinking,  speaking  of  nothing  else.  He  would  rise 
long  before  any  one  else  so  as  to  begin  earlier  the  study  of 
the  experiments  he  had  started,  and  would  give  his  thought 
and  attention  to  some  detail  for  hours  at  a  time.  After 
this  minute  observation  he  would  suddenly  display  a  mar- 
vellous ingenuity  in  varying  tests,  foreseeing  and  avoiding 
causes  of  error,  and  at  last,  after  so  many  efforts,  a  clear 
and  decisive  experiment  would  come,  as  it  had  done  in  the 
cases  of  spontaneous  generation  and  of  ferments. 

The  contrasts  in  his  mind  had  their  parallel  in  his 
character:  this  usually  thoughtful,  almost  dreamy  man, 
absorbed  in  one  idea,  suddenly  revealed  himself  a  man 
of  action  if  provoked  by  some  erroneous  newspaper  report 
or  some  illogical  statement,  and  especially  when  he  heard 
of  some  unscrupulous  silkworm  seed  merchant  sowing  ruin 
in  poor  magnaneries  for  the  sake  of  a  paltry  gain.  When, 
on  his  return  to  Paris,  he  found  himself  mixed  up  with  the 
small  revolution  in  the  Ecole  Normale,  he  was  seen  to 
efface  himself  modestly  before  his  masters  when  honours 
and  titles  came  in  question.  Now  he  had  interrupted  his 
researches  in  order  to  do  a  kindness  to  the  people  of 
Orleans,  who,  practical  as  they  were,  and  perhaps  a  little 
disdainful  of  laboratory  theories,  had  been  surprised  to  find 
him  as  careful  of  the  smallest  detail  as  they  themselves 
were. 

He  was  then  in  the  full  maturity  of  his  forty-fiv^  years. 
His  great  intuition,  his  imagination,  which  equalled  any 
poet's,  often  carried  him  to  a  summit  whence  an  immense 
horizon  lay  before  him  ;  he  would  then  suddenly  doubt  this 
imagination,  resolutely,  with  a  violent  effort,  force  his 
mind  to  start  again  along  the  path  of  experimental  method, 

198 


I865-I870 

and,  surely  and  slowly,  gathering  proofs  as  he  went,  he 
would  once  more  reach  his  exalted  and  general  ideas. 
This  constant  struggle  within  himself  was  almost  dra- 
matic; the  words  "  Perseverance  in  Effort,"  which  he  often 
used  in  the  form  of  advice  to  others,  or  as  a  programme  for 
his  own  work,  seemed  to  bring  something  far  away,  some- 
thing infinite  before  his  dreamy  eyes. 

At  the  end  of  the  year,  an  obstacle  almost  arrested  the 
great  experiments  he  contemplated.  He  heard  that  the 
promises  made  to  him  were  vanishing  away,  the  necessary 
credit  having  been  refused  for  the  building  of  the  new 
laboratory.  And  this,  Pasteur  sadly  reflected,  when 
millions  and  millions  of  francs  were  being  spent  on  the 
Opera  house  !  Wounded  in  his  feelings,  both  as  a  scientist 
and  a  patriot,  he  prepared  for  the  Moniteur^  then  the  official 
paper,  an  article  destined  to  shake  the  culpable  indifference 
of  public  authorities. 

"...  The  boldest  conceptions,"  he  wrote,  "the  most 
legitimate  speculations  can  be  embodied  but  from  the  day 
when  they  are  consecrated  by  observation  and  experiment. 
Laboratories  and  discoveries  are  correlative  terms  ;  if  you 
suppress  laboratories,  Physical  Science  will  become  stricken 
with  barrenness  and  death  ;  it  will  become  mere  powerless 
information  instead  of  a  science  of  progress  and  futurity  ; 
give  it  back  its  laboratories,  and  life,  fecundity  and  power 
will  reappear.  Away  from  their  laboratories,  physicists 
and  chemists  are  but  disarmed  soldiers  on  a  battle- 
field. 

"  The  deduction  from  these  principles  is  evident  :  if  the 
conquests  useful  to  humanity  touch  your  heart — if  you 
remain  confounded  before  the  marvels  of  electric  tele- 
graphy, of  anaesthesia,  of  the  daguerreotype  and  many  other 
admirable  discoveries — if  you  are  jealous  of  the  share  your 

199 


THE  LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

country  may  boast  in  these  wonders — then,  I  implore  you, 
take  some  interest  in  those  sacred  dwellings  meaningly  de- 
scribed as  laboratories.  Ask  that  they  may  be  multiplied 
and  completed.  They  are  the  temples  of  the  future,  of 
riches  and  of  comfort.  There  humanity  grows  greater, 
better,  stronger  ;  there  she  can  learn  to  read  the  works  of 
Nature,  works  of  progress  and  universal  harmony,  while 
humanity's  own  works  are  too  often  those  of  barbarism, 
of  fanaticism  and  of  destruction. 

"  Some  nations  have  felt  the  wholesome  breath  of  truth. 
Rich  and  large  laboratories  have  been  growing  in  Germany 
for  the  last  thirty  years,  and  many  more  are  still  being 
built  ;  at  Berlin  and  at  Bonn  two  palaces,  worth  four 
million  francs  each,  are  being  erected  for  chemical  studies. 
St.  Petersburg  has  spent  three  and  a  half  million  francs 
on  a  Physiological  Institute  ;  England,  America,  Austria, 
Bavaria  have  made  most  generous  sacrifices.  Italy  too  has 
made  a  start. 

"And  France? 

"France  has  not  yet  begun.  ..."  He  mentioned  the 
sepulchre-like  cellar  where  the  great  physiologist,  Claude 
Bernard,  was  obliged  to  live;  "and  where?"  wrote  Pasteur. 
'  In  the  very  establishment  which  bears  the  name  of  the 
mother  country,  the  Collège  de  France  !  "  The  laboratory  of 
the  Sorbonne  was  no  better — a  damp,  dark  room,  one  metre 
below  the  level  of  the  street.  He  went  on,  demonstrating 
that  the  provincial  Faculties  were  as  destitute  as  those  of 
Paris.  "  Who  will  believe  me  when  I  affirm  that  the  budget 
of  Public  Instruction  provides  not  a  penny  towards  the 
progress  of  physical  science  in  laboratories,  that  it  is 
through  a  tolerated  administrative  fiction  that  some 
scientists,  considered  as  professors,  are  permitted  to  draw 
from  the  public  treasury  towards  the  expenses  of  their  own 

200 


I865-I870 

work,  some  of  the  allowance  made  to  them  for  teaching 
purposes." 

The  manuscript  was  sent  to  the  Moniteur  at  the  begin- 
ning of  January,  1868.  It  had  lately  been  publishing  mild 
articles  on  Mussulman  architecture,  then  on  herring  fishing 
in  Norway.  The  official  whose  business  it  was  to  read  over 
the  articles  sent  to  the  paper  literally  jumped  in  his  chair 
when  he  read  this  fiery  denunciation  ;  he  declared  those 
pages  must  be  modified,  cut  down  ;  the  Administration  could 
not  be  attacked  in  that  way,  especially  by  one  of  its  own 
functionaries!  M.  Dalloz,  the  editor  of  the  paper,  knew 
that  Pasteur  would  never  consent  to  any  alterations  ;  he 
advised  him  to  show  the  proofs  to  M.  Conti,  Napoleon  Ill's 
secretary. 

"  The  article  cannot  appear  in  the  Moniteur^  but  why  not 
publish  it  in  booklet  form?"  wrote  M.  Conti  to  Pasteur 
after  having  shown  these  revelations  to  the  Emperor. 
Napoleon,  talking  to  Duruy  the  next  day,  January  9,  showed 
great  concern  at  such  a  state  of  things.  "  Pasteur  is  right," 
said  Duruy,  "  to  expose  such  deficiencies  ;  it  is  the  best  way 
to  have  them  remedied.  Is  it  not  deplorable,  almost  scan- 
dalous, that  the  official  world  should  be  so  indifferent  on 
questions  of  science  ?  " 

Duruy  felt  his  combative  instincts  awakening.  How 
many  times,  in  spite  of  his  good  humour  and  almost  Roman 
intrepidity,  he  had  asked  himself  whether  he  would  ever 
succeed  in  causing  his  ideas  on  higher  education  to  prevail 
with  his  colleagues,  the  other  Ministers,  who,  carried  away 
by  their  daily  discussions,  hardly  seemed  to  realize  that  the 
true  supremacy  of  a  nation  does  not  reside  in  speeches,  but 
in  the  silent  and  tenacious  work  of  a  few  men  of  science 
and  of  letters.  Pasteur's  article  entitled  Science's  Budget 
appeared  first  in  the  Revue  des  cours  scientifiques^  then  as 

201 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

a  pamphlet.  Pasteur,  not  content  with  this,  continued  his 
campaign  by  impetuous  speeches  whenever  the  opportunity 
offered.  On  March  lo,  he  saw  himself  nearing  his  goal, 
and  wrote  to  Raulin:  "There  is  now  a  marked  movement 
in  favour  of  Science;  I  think  I  shall  succeed." 

Six  days  later,  on  March  i6,  whilst  the  Court  was  cele- 
brating the  birthday  of  the  Prince  Imperial,  Napoleon  III, 
who,  on  reading  Pasteur's  article,  had  expressed  his  inten- 
tion of  consulting  not  only  Pasteur,  but  also  Milne-Edwards, 
Claude  Bernard,  and  Henri  Sainte  Claire  Deville,  asked  the 
four  scientists  to  his  study  to  meet  Rouher,  Marshal  Vaillant 
and  Duruy,  perhaps  the  three  men  of  the  Empire  who  were 
best  qualified  to  hear  them.  The  Emperor  in  his  slow, 
detached  manner,  invited  each  of  his  guests  to  express  his 
opinion  on  the  course  to  follow.  All  agreed  in  regretting 
that  pure  science  should  be  given  up.  When  Rouher  said 
that  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  reign  of  applied 
science  should  follow  that  of  pure  science,  "  But  if  the 
sources  of  applications  are  dried  up  !  "  interposed  the 
Emperor  hastily.  Pasteur,  asked  to  express  his  opinion 
(he  had  brought  with  him  notes  of  what  he  wished  to  say), 
recalled  the  fact  that  the  Natural  History  Museum  and  the 
Ecole  Polytechnique,  which  had  had  so  great  a  share  in  the 
scientific  movement  of  the  early  part  of  the  century,  were 
no  longer  in  that  heroic  period.  For  the  last  twenty  years 
the  industrial  prosperity  of  France  had  induced  the  cleverest 
Polytechnicians  to  desert  higher  studies  and  theoretical 
science,  though  the  source  of  all  applications  was  to  be 
found  in  theory.  The  Ecole  Polytechnique  was  obliged 
now  to  recruit  its  teaching  staff  outside,  chiefly  among 
Normaliens.  What  was  to  be  done  to  train  future  scientists  ? 
This  :  to  maintain  in  Paris,  during  two  or  three  years,  five 
or  six  graduates  chosen  from  the  best  students  of  the  large 

202 


1865- I 870 

schools  as  curators  or  preparation  masters,  doing  at  the 
Ecole  Polytechnique  and  other  establishments  what  was 
done  at  the  Ecole  Normale.  Thanks  to  that  special  institu- 
tion, science  and  higher  teaching  would  have  a  reserve  of 
men  who  would  become  an  honour  to  their  country.  Next, 
and  this  was  the  second  point,  no  less  important  than  the 
first,  scientists  should  be  given  resources  better  appropriated 
to  the  pursuit  of  their  work  ;  as  in  Germany,  for  instance, 
where  a  scientist  would  leave  one  university  for  another 
on  the  express  condition  that  a  laboratory  should  be  built 
for  him,  a  laboratory,"  said  Pasteur,  "  usually  magnificent, 
not  in  its  architecture  (though  sometimes  that  is  the  case,  a 
proof  of  the  national  pride  in  scientific  glory),  but  in  the 
number  and  perfection  of  its  appliances.  Besides,"  he 
added,  "  foreign  scientists  have  their  private  homes  adjoin- 
ing their  laboratories  and  collections,"  indeed  a  most  press- 
ing inducement  to  work. 

Pasteur  did  not  suggest  that  a  scientist  should  give  up 
teaching  ;  he  recognized,  on  the  contrary,  that  public  teach- 
ing forces  him  to  embrace  in  succession  every  branch  of 
the  science  he  teaches.  "  But  let  him  not  give  too  frequent 
or  too  varied  lectures  !  they  paralyze  the  faculties,"  he  said, 
being  well  aware  of  the  cost  of  preparing  classes.  He 
wished  that  towns  should  be  interested  in  the  working  and 
success  of  their  scientific  establishments.  The  Universities 
of  Paris,  of  Lyons,  of  Strasburg,  of  Montpellier,  of  Lille, 
of  Bordeaux,  and  of  Toulouse,  forming  as  a  whole  the 
University  of  France,  should  be  connected  to  the  neighbour- 
hood which  they  honour  in  the  same  way  that  German 
universities  are  connected  with  their  surroundings. 

Pasteur  had  the  greatest  admiration  for  the  German 
system  :  popular  instruction  liberally  provided,  and,  above 
it,  an  intellectually  independent  higher  teaching.    There- 

203 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

fore,  when  the  University  of  Bonn  resolved  in  that  year, 
1868,  to  offer  him  as  a  great  homage  the  degree  of  M.D.  on 
account  of  his  works  on  micro-organisms,  he  was  proud  to 
see  his  researches  rated  at  their  proper  value  by  a  neigh- 
bouring nation.  He  did  not  then  suspect  the  other  side  of 
German  nature,  the  military  side,  then  very  differently 
preoccupied.  Those  preoccupations  were  pointed  out  to  the 
French  Government  in  a  spirit  of  prophecy,  and  with  some 
patriotic  anguish,  by  two  French  ofiicers,  General  Ducrot, 
commanding  since  1865  the  6th  Military  Division,  whose 
headquarters  were  at  Strasburg,  and  Colonel  Baron  Stoffel, 
military  attaché  in  Prussia  since  1866.  Their  warnings 
were  so  little  heeded  that  some  Court  intrigues  were  even 
then  on  foot  to  transfer  General  Ducrot  from  Strasburg  to 
Bourges,  so  that  he  might  no  longer  worry  people  with  his 
monomania  of  Prussian  ambition. 

On  March  10,  the  evening  of  the  day  when  the  Emperor 
decided  upon  making  improvements,  and  when  Duruy  felt 
assured,  thanks  to  the  promised  allowances,  that  he  could 
soon  offer  to  French  professors  "  the  necessary  appliances 
with  which  to  compete  with  their  rivals  beyond  the  Rhine," 
Pasteur  started  for  Alais,  where  his  arrival  was  impatiently 
awaited,  both  by  partisans  and  adversaries  of  his  experi- 
ments on  silkworm  disease.  He  would  much  have  liked  to 
give  the  results  of  his  work  in  his  inaugural  lecture  at  the 
Sorbonne.  "  But,"  he  wrote  to  Duruy,  "  these  are  but 
selfishly  sentimental  reasons,  which  must  be  outweighed  by 
the  interest  of  my  researches." 

On  his  arrival  he  found  to  his  joy  that  those  who  had 
practised  seeding  according  to  his  rigorous  prescriptions 
had  met  with  complete  success.  Other  silkworm  cultivators, 
less  well  advised,  duped  by  the  decoying  appearances  of 
certain  broods,  had  not  taken  the  trouble  to  examine  whether 

204 


I 865-1870 

the  moths  were  corpuscled  ;  they  were  witnesses  and  vic- 
tims of  the  failure  Pasteur  had  prophesied.  He  now  looked 
upon  pébrine  as  conquered;  but  flachery  remained,  more 
difficult  to  prevent,  being  greatly  dependent  upon  the  acci- 
dents which  traverse  the  life  of  a  silkworm.  Some  of  those 
accidents  happen  in  spite  of  all  precautions,  such  as  a  sudden 
change  of  temperature  or  a  stormy  day  ;  but  at  least  the 
leaves  of  the  mulberry  tree  could  be  carefully  kept  from 
fermentation,  or  from  contamination  by  dusts  in  the  nur- 
series. Either  of  those  two  causes  was  sufficient  to  provoke 
a  fatal  disorder  in  silkworms,  the  feeding  of  which  is  so 
important  that  they  increase  to  fifteen  thousand  times  their 
own  weight  during  the  first  month  of  their  life.  Accidental 
flachery  could  therefore  be  avoided  by  hygienic  precautions. 
In  order  to  prevent  it  from  becoming  hereditary,  Pasteur — 
who  had  pointed  out  that  the  micro-organism  which  causes 
it  develops  at  first  in  the  intestinal  canal  of  the  worm  and 
then  becomes  localized  in  the  digestive  cavity  of  the  chry- 
salis— advised  the  following  means  of  producing  a  healthy 
strain  of  silkworms  :  *'  This  means,"  writes  M.  Gernez, 
Pasteur's  assiduous  collaborator  in  these  studies,  "  does  not 
greatly  complicate  operations,  and  infallibly  ensures  healthy 
seed.  It  consists  in  abstracting  with  the  point  of  a  scalpel 
a  small  portion  of  the  digestive  cavity  of  a  moth,  then 
mixing  it  with  a  little  water  and  examining  it  with  a 
microscope.  If  the  moths  do  not  contain  the  characteristic 
micro-organism,  the  strain  they  come  from  may  unhesitat- 
ingly be  considered  as  suitable  for  seeding.  The  flachery 
micro-organism  is  as  easily  recognized  as  the  pébrine  cor- 
puscle." 

The  seed  merchants,  made  uneasy  by  these  discoveries 
which  so  gravely  jeopardized  their  industry,  spread  the 
most  slanderous  reports  about  them  and  made  themselves 

205 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

the  willing  echo  of  every  imposture,  however  incredible. 
M.  Laurent  wrote  to  his  daughter,  Madame  Pasteur,  in  a 
letter  dated  from  Lyons  (June  6) :  "It  is  being  reported 
here  that  the  failure  of  Pasteur's  process  has  excited  the 
population  of  your  neighbourhood  so  much  that  he  has  had 
to  flee  from  Alais,  ptu^sued  by  infuriated  inhabitants  throw- 
ing stones  after  him."  Some  of  these  legends  lingered  in 
the  minds  of  ignorant  people. 

Important  news  came  from  Paris  to  Pasteur  in  July,  and 
on  the  27th  he  was  able  to  write  to  Raulin:  "  The  building 
of  my  laboratory  is  going  to  be  begun!  the  orders  are 
given,  and  the  money  found.  I  heard  this  two  days  ago 
from  the  Minister."  30,000  francs  had  been  allowed  for 
the  work  by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  and  an 
equal  sum  was  promised  by  the  Minister  of  the  Emperor's 
household.  Duruy  was  preparing  at  the  same  time  a  report 
on  two  projected  decrees  concerning  laboratories  for  teach- 
ing purposes  and  for  research.  "The  laboratory  for  re- 
search," wrote  Duruy,  "  will  not  be  useful  to  the  master 
alone,  but  more  so  even  to  the  students,  thus  ensuring  the 
future  progress  of  science.  Students  already  provided  with 
extensive  theoretical  knowledge  will  be  initiated  in  the 
teaching  laboratories  into  the  handling  of  instruments,  ele- 
mentary manipulations,  and  what  I  may  call  classical 
practice  ;  this  will  gather  them  around  eminent  masters, 
from  whom  they  will  learn  the  art  of  observation  and 
methods  of  experiment.  ...  It  is  with  similar  institutions 
that  Germany  has  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  great  develop- 
ment of  experimental  science  which  we  are  now  watching 
with  an  anxious  sympathy." 

Pasteur  returned  to  Paris  with  his  enthusiastic  mind 
overflowing  with  plans  of  all  kinds  of  research.  He  wanted 
to  be  there  when  the  builders  began  their  work  on  the  narrow 

206 


1865-1870 

space  in  the  Rue  d'Ulm.  He  wrote  to  Raulin  on  August 
10,  asking  his  opinion  as  hé  would  that  of  an  architect  ; 
then  went  on  to  say,  planning  out  his  busy  holidays  :  "  I 
shall  leave  Paris  on  the  lôth  with  my  wife  and  children  to 
spend  three  weeks  at  the  seaside,  at  St.  George's,  near  Bor- 
deaux. If  you  were  free  at  the  end  of  the  month,  or  at  the 
beginning  of  September,  I  wish  you  could  accompany  me 
to  Toulon,  where  experiments  on  the  heating  of  wines  will 
be  made  by  the  Minister  of  the  Navy.  Great  quantities  of 
heated  and  of  non-heated  wine  are  to  be  sent  to  Gabon  so 
as  to  test  the  process  ;  at  present  our  colonial  crews  have  to 
drink  mere  vinegar.  A  commission  of  very  enlightened 
men  is  formed  and  has  begun  studies  with  which  it  seems 
satisfied.  .  .  .  See  if  you  can  join  me  at  Bordeaux,  where  I 
shall  await  a  notice  from  the  chairman  of  the  Commission, 
M.  de  Lapparent,  director  of  naval  construction  at  the 
Ministry  of  Marine." 

The  Commission  mentioned  by  Pasteur  had  been  consider- 
ing for  the  last  two  years  the  expediency  of  applying  the 
heating  process  to  wines  destined  for  the  fleet  and  to  the 
colonies.  A  first  trial  was  made  at  Brest  on  the  contents 
of  a  barrel  of  500  litres,  half  of  which  was  heated.  Then 
the  two  wines  were  sealed  in  different  barrels  and  placed 
in  the  ship  Jean  Bart^  which  remained  away  from  the  har- 
bour for  ten  months.  When  the  vessel  returned,  the  Com- 
mission noted  the  limpidity  and  mellowness  of  the  heated 
wine,  adding  in  the  official  report  that  the  wine  had  acquired 
the  attractive  colour  peculiar  to  mature  wines.  The  non- 
heated  wine  was  equally  limpid,  but  it  had  an  astringent, 
almost  acid  flavour.  It  was  still  fit  to  drink,  said  the  report, 
but  it  were  better  to  consume  it  rapidly,  as  it  would  soon  be 
entirely  spoilt.  Identical  results  were  observed  in  some  bottles 
of  heated  and  non-heated  wines  at  Rochefort  and  Orleans. 

207 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

M.  de  Lapparent  now  organized  a  decisive  experiment, 
to  take  place  under  Pasteur's  superintendence.  The  frigate 
la  Sibylle  started  for  a  tour  round  the  world  with  a  complete 
cargo  of  heated  wine.  Pasteur,  who  returned  to  Arbois  for 
a  short  rest  before  going  back  to  Paris,  wrote  from  there  to 
his  early  confidant,  Chappuis  (September  21,  1868)  :  "  I  am 
quite  satisfied  with  my  experiments  at  Toulon  and  with  the 
success  of  the  Navy  tests.  We  heated  650  hectolitres  in  two 
days  ;  the  rapidity  of  this  operation  lends  itself  to  quick  and 
considerable  commissariat  arrangements.  Those  650  hec- 
tolitres will  be  taken  to  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  together 
with  50  hectolitres  of  the  same  wine  non-heated.  If  the 
trial  succeeds,  that  is  to  say  if  the  650  hectolitres  arrive 
and  can  be  kept  without  alteration,  and  if  the  50  hectolitres 
become  spoilt  (I  feel  confident  after  the  experiments  I  have 
made  that  such  will  be  the  result),  the  question  will  be 
settled,  and,  in  the  future,  all  the  wine  for  the  Navy  will  be 
ensured  against  disease  by  a  preliminary  heating.  The 
expense  will  not  be  more  than  five  centimes  per  hectolitre. 
The  result  of  these  experiments  will  have  a  great  influence 
on  the  trade,  ever  cautious  and  afraid  of  innovations.  Yet 
we  have  seen,  at  Narbonne  in  particular,  some  heating 
practised  on  a  large  scale  by  several  merchants  who  have 
spoken  to  me  very  favourably  about  it.  The  exportation 
of  our  French  wines  will  increase  enormously,  for  at  present 
our  ordinary  table  wines  lend  themselves  to  trade  with 
England  and  other  countries  beyond  seas,  but  only  by  means 
of  a  strong  addition  of  alcohol,  which  raises  their  price  and 
tampers  with  their  hygienic  qualities." 

The  experiments  were  successful.  Pasteur's  life  was 
now  over  full.  He  returned  to  Paris  at  the  beginning  of 
October,  and  threw  himself  into  his  work,  his  classes  at 
the  Sorbonne,  the  organization  of  his  laboratory,   some 

208 


I865-I870 

further  polemics  on  the  subject  of  silkworm  disease,  and 
projected  experiments  for  the  following  year.  This  ac- 
cumulation of  mental  work  brought  about  extreme  cerebral 
tension. 

As  soon  as  he  saw  M.  Gernez,  he  spoke  to  him  of  the 
coming  campaign  of  sériciculture,  of  his  desire  to  reduce 
his  adversaries  to  silence  by  heaping  proof  upon  proof. 
Nothing  could  relieve  him  from  that  absorbing  preoccupa- 
tion, not  even  the  gaiety  of  Bertin,  who,  living  on  the  same 
floor  at  the  Ecole  Normale,  often  used  to  come  in  after 
dinner  and  try  to  amuse  him. 

On  Monday,  October  19,  Pasteur,  though  suffering  from 
a  strange  tingling  sensation  of  the  left  side,  had  a  great 
desire  to  go  and  read  to  the  Académie  des  Sciences  a 
treatise  by  Salimbeni,  an  Italian,  who,  having  studied 
and  verified  Pasteur's  results,  declared  that  the  best  means 
of  regenerating  the  culture  of  silkworms  was  due  to  the 
French  scientist.  This  treatise,  the  diploma  of  the  Bonn 
University,  the  Rumford  medal  offered  by  the  English,  all 
those  testimonials  from  neighbouring  nations  were  in- 
finitely agreeable  to  Pasteur,  who  was  proud  to  lay  such 
homage  before  the  shrine  of  France.  On  that  day,  October 
19,  1868,  a  date  which  became  a  bitter  memory  to  his 
family  and  friends — in  spite  of  an  alarming  shivering  fit 
which  had  caused  him  to  lie  down  immediately  after  lunch 
instead  of  working  as  usual — he  insisted  on  going  to  the 
Academy  sitting  at  half  past  two. 

Mme.  Pasteur,  vaguely  uneasy,  made  a  pretext  of  some 
shopping  beyond  the  Quai  Conti  and  accompanied  him 
as  far  as  the  vestibule  of  the  Institute.  As  she  was  turn- 
ing back,  she  met  Balard,  who  was  coming  up  with  the 
quick  step  of  a  young  man,  stopped  him  and  asked  him  to 
walk  back  with  Pasteur,  and  not  to   leave  him  before 

VOL.  I  209  p 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

reaching  his  own  door,  though  indeed  it  seemed  a  curious 
exchange  of  parts  to  ask  Balard  at  sixty  years  of  age 
to  watch  over  Pasteur  still  so  young.  Pasteur  read 
Salimbeni's  paper  in  his  usual  steady  voice,  remained 
until  the  end  of  the  sitting  and  walked  back  with  Balard 
and  Sainte  Claire  De  ville.  He  dined  very  lightly  and  went 
to  bed  at  nine  o'clock  ;  he  had  hardly  got  into  bed  when 
he  felt  himself  attacked  by  the  strange  symptoms  of  the 
afternoon.  He  tried  to  speak,  but  in  vain;  after  a  few 
moments  he  was  able  to  call  for  assistance.  Mme. 
Pasteur  sent  at  once  for  Dr.  Godélier,  an  intimate  friend 
of  the  family,  an  army  surgeon.  Clinical  Professor  at  the 
Ecole  du  Val-de-Grâce  ^  ;  and  Pasteur,  paralysed  one 
moment  and  free  again  the  next,  explained  his  own 
symptoms  during  the  intervals  of  the  dark  struggle 
which  endangered  his  life. 

The  cerebral  haemorrhage  gradually  brought  about 
absence  of  movement  along  the  entire  left  side.  When  the 
next  morning  Dr.  Noël  Gueneau  de  Mussy,  going  his 
regulation  round  of  the  Ecole  Normale  students,  came  into 
his  room  and  said,  so  as  not  to  alarm  him,  "  I  heard  you 
were  unwell,  and  thought  I  would  come  to  see  you," 
Pasteur  smiled  the  sad  smile  of  a  patient  with  no  illusions. 
Drs.  Godélier  and  Gueneau  de  Mussy  decided  to  call  Dr. 
Andral  in  consultation,  and  went  to  fetch  him  at  three 
o'clock  at  the  Académie  de  Médecine.  Somewhat  discon- 
certed by  the  singular  character  of  this  attack  of  hemiplegia, 
Andral  prescribed  the  application  of  sixteen  leeches  behind 
the  ears  ;  blood  flowed  abundantly,  and  Dr.  Godélier  wrote 
in  the  evening  bulletin  (Tuesday)  :  "  Speech  clearer,  some 
movements  of  the  paralysed  limbs;   intelligence  perfect." 

^  Val-de-Grâce.  A  handsome  monument  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
now  a  military  hospital.    [Trans.] 

210 


I865-I870 

Later,  at  ten  o'clock:  "Complains  of  his  paralysed  arm." 
"It  is  like  lead;  if  it  could  only  be  cut  off!"  groaned 
Pasteur.  About  2  a.m.  Mme.  Pasteur  thought  all  hope  was 
gone.  The  hastily  written  bulletin  reads  thus  :  "  Intense 
cold,  anxious  agitation,  features  depressed,  eyes  languid." 
The  sleep  which  followed  was  as  the  sleep  of  death. 

At  dawn  Pasteur  awoke  from  this  drowsiness.  "  Mental 
faculties  still  absolutely  intact,"  wrote  M.  Godélier  at  12.30 
on  Wednesday,  October  21.  "  The  cerebral  lesion,  whatever 
it  may  be,  is  not  worse  ;  there  is  an  evident  pause."  Two 
hours  later  the  words,  "Mind  active,"  were  followed  by 
the  startling  statement,  "Would  willingly  talk  science." 

While  these  periods  of  calm,  agitation,  renewed  hopes, 
and  despair  were  succeeding  each  other  in  the  course  of 
those  thirty-six  hours,  Pasteur's  friends  hastened  to  his 
bedside.  He  said  to  Henri  Sainte  Claire  Deville,  one  of  the 
first  to  come  :  "  I  am  sorry  to  die  ;  I  wanted  to  do  much 
more  for  my  country."  Sainte  Claire  Deville,  trying  to 
hide  his  grief  under  apparent  confidence,  answered,  "  Never 
fear  ;  you  will  recover,  you  will  make  many  more  marvel- 
lous discoveries,  you  will  live  happy  days;  I  am  your 
senior,  you  will  survive  me.  Promise  me  that  you  will 
pronounce  my  funeral  oration.  ...  I  wish  you  would  ;  you 
would  say  nice  things  of  me,"  he  added  between  tears  and 
smiles. 

Bertin,  Gernez,  Duclaux,  Raulin,  Didon,  then  a  curator 
at  the  Ecole  Normale,  Professor  Auguste  Lamy,  the 
geologist  Marcou  (the  two  latter  being  Franche-comté 
friends),  all  claimed  the  privilege  of  helping  Mme.  Pasteur 
and  M.  Godélier  in  nursing  one  who  inspired  them  all,  not 
merely  with  an  admiring  and  devoted  affection,  but  with 
a  feeling  of  tenderness  amounting  almost  to  a  cult. 

A  private  letter  from  a  cousin,  Mme.  Cribier,  gives  an 

211 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

idea  of  those  dark  days  (October  26,  1868):  "The  news 
is  rather  good  this  morning  ;  the  patient  was  able  to  sleep 
for  a  few  hours  last  night,  which  he  had  not  yet  done.  He 
had  been  so  restless  all  day  that  M.  Godélier  felt  uneasy 
about  him  and  ordered  complete  silence  in  the  whole  flat  ; 
it  was  only  in  the  study  which  is  farthest  away  from  the 
bedroom,  and  which  has  padded  doors,  that  one  was  allowed 
to  talk.  That  room  is  full  from  morning  till  night.  All 
scientific  Paris  comes  to  inquire  anxiously  after  the  patient  ; 
intimate  friends  take  it  in  turns  to  watch  by  him.  Dumas, 
the  great  chemist,  was  affectionately  insisting  on  taking 
his  turn  yesterday.  Every  morning  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  send  a  footman  for  news,  which  M.  Godélier  gives 
him  in  a  sealed  envelope.  In  fact,  every  mark  of  sympathy 
is  given  to  poor  Marie,  and  I  hope  that  the  worst  may  be 
spared  her  in  spite  of  the  alarming  beginning.  His  mind 
seems  so  absolutely  untouched,  and  he  is  still  so  young, 
that  with  rest  and  care  he  might  yet  be  able  to  do  some 
work.  His  stroke  is  accompanied  by  symptoms  which  are 
now  occupying  the  attention  of  the  whole  Academy  of 
Medicine.  Paralysis  alwaj^s  comes  abruptly,  whilst  for 
M.  Pasteur,  it  came  in  little  successive  fits,  twenty  or  thirty 
perhaps,  and  was  only  complete  at  the  end  of  twenty-four 
hours,  which  completely  disconcerted  the  doctors  who 
watched  him,  and  delayed  their  having  recourse  to  an 
active  treatment.  It  seems  that  this  fact  is  observed  for 
the  first  time,  and  is  puzzling  the  whole  Faculty." 

M.  Pasteur's  mind  remained  clear,  luminous,  dominating 
his  prostrate  body  ;  he  was  evidently  afraid  that  he  should 
die  before  having  thoroughly  settled  the  question  of  silk- 
worm diseases.  "  One  night  that  I  was  alone  with  him," 
relates  M.  Gernez,  who  hardly  left  his  bedside  during  that 
terrible  week,  "  after  endeavouring  in  vain  to  distract  his 

212 


I865-I870 

thoughts,  I  despairingly  gave  up  the  attempt  and  allowed 
him  to  express  the  ideas  which  were  on  his  mind  ;  finding, 
to  my  surprise,  that  they  had  his  accustomed  clearness  and 
conciseness,  I  wrote  what  he  dictated  without  altering  a 
word,  and  the  next  day  I  brought  to  his  illustrious 
colleague,  Dumas — who  hardly  credited  his  senses — the 
memorandum  which  appeared  in  the  report  of  the  Académie 
on  October  26,  1868,  a  week  after  the  stroke  which  nearly 
killed  him  !  It  was  a  note  on  a  very  ingenious  process  for 
discovering  in  the  earlier  tests  those  eggs  which  are  pre- 
disposed to  flachery. 

The  members  of  the  Academy  were  much  cheered  by  the 
reading  of  this  note,  which  seemed  to  bring  Pasteur  back 
into  their  midst. 

The  building  of  the  laboratory  had  been  begun,  and 
hoardings  erected  around  the  site.  Pasteur,  from  his  bed, 
asked  day  by  day,  "  How  are  they  getting  on?  "  But  his 
wife  and  daughter,  going  to  the  window  of  the  dining-room 
which  overlooked  the  Ecole  Normale  garden,  only  brought 
him  back  vague  answers,  for,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  work- 
men had  disappeared  from  the  very  first  day  of  Pasteur's 
illness.  All  that  could  be  seen  was  a  solitary  labourer 
wheeling  a  barrow  aimlessly  about,  probably  under  the 
orders  of  some  official  who  feared  to  alarm  the  patient 

As  Pasteur  was  not  expected  to  recover,  the  trouble  and 
expense  were  deemed  unnecessary.  Pasteur  soon  became 
aware  of  this,  and  one  day  that  General  Favé  had  come  to  see 
him  he  gave  vent  to  some  bitter  feelings  as  to  this  cautious 
interruption  of  the  building  works,  saying  that  it  would 
have  been  simpler  and  more  straightforward  to  state  from 
the  beginning  that  the  work  was  suspended  in  the  expecta- 
tion of  a  probable  demise. 

Napoleon  was  informed  of  this  excess  of  zeal,  not  only  by 

2iq 


THE  LIFE   OF  PASTEUR 

General  Favé,  but  by  Sainte  Claire  Deville,  who  was  a  guest 
at  Compiègne  at  the  beginning  of  November,  1868.  He  wrote 
to  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction — 

"  My  dear  M.  Duruy, — I  have  heard  that — unknown  to 
you  probably — the  men  who  were  working  at  M.  Pasteur's 
laboratory  were  kept  away  from  the  very  day  he  became 
ill  ;  he  has  been  much  affected  by  this  circumstance,  which 
seemed  to  point  to  his  non-recovery.  I  beg  you  will  issue 
orders  that  the  work  begim  should  be  continued.  Believe 
in  my  sincere  friendship. — Napoleon." 

Duruy  immediately  sent  on  this  note  to  M.  du  Mesnil, 
whose  somewhat  long  title  was  that  of  "  Chief  of  the 
Division  of  Academic  Administration  of  Scientific  Estab- 
lishments and  of  Higher  Education."  M.  du  Mesnil  evi- 
dently repudiated  the  charge  for  himself  or  for  his  Minister, 
for  he  wrote  in  a  large  hand,  on  the  very  margin  of  the 
Imperial  autograph — 

"  M.  Duruy  gave  no  orders  and  had  to  give  none.  It  is 
at  his  solicitation  that  the  works  were  undertaken,  but  it 
is  the  Direction  of  Civic  Buildings  alone  which  can  have 
interrupted  them;  the  fact  should  be  verified." 

M.  de  Cardaillac,  head  of  the  Direction  of  Civic  Buildings, 
made  an  inquiry  and  the  building  was  resumed. 

It  was  only  on  November  30  that  Pasteur  left  his  bed  for 
the  first  time  and  spent  an  hour  in  his  armchair.  He  clearly 
analyzed  to  himself  his  melancholy  condition,  stricken  down 
as  he  was  by  hemiplegia  in  his  forty-sixth  year  ;  but  having 
noticed  that  his  remarks  saddened  his  wife  and  daughter, 
he  spoke  no  more  about  his  illness,  and  only  expressed  his 
anxiety  not  to  be  a  trouble,  a  burden,  he  said,  to  his  wife, 
his  son  and  daughter,  and  the  devoted  friends  who  helped  to 
watch  him  at  night. 

In  the  daytime  each  ofifered  to  read  to  him.     General 

214 


I865-I870 

Favé,  whose  active  and  inquiring  mind  was  ever  on  the 
alert,  brought  him  on  one  of  his  almost  daily  visits  an 
ideal  sick  man's  book,  easy  to  read  and  offering  food  for 
meditation.  It  was  the  translation  of  an  English  book 
called  Self-Help^  and  it  consisted  in  a  series  of  biographies, 
histories  of  lives  illustrating  the  power  of  courage,  devotion 
or  intelligence.  The  author,  glad  to  expound  a  discovery, 
to  describe  a  masterpiece,  to  relate  noble  enterprises,  to 
dwell  upon  the  prodigies  which  energy  can  achieve,  had 
succeeded  in  making  a  homogeneous  whole  of  these  uncon- 
nected narratives,  a  sort  of  homage  to  Will-power. 

Pasteur  agreed  with  the  English  writer  in  thinking  that 
the  supremacy  of  a  nation  resides  in  "  the  sum  total  of 
private  virtues,  activities  and  energy."  His  thoughts  rose 
higher  still  ;  men  of  science  could  wish  for  a  greater  glory 
than  that  of  contributing  to  the  fame  and  fortune  of  their 
country,  they  might  aspire  to  originating  vast  benefits  to 
the  whole  of  humanity. 

It  was  indeed  a  sad  and  a  sublime  spectacle,  that  of  the 
contrast  between  that  ardent,  soaring  soul  and  that  patient 
helpless  body.  It  was  probably  when  thinking  of  those 
biographies  —  some  of  them  too  succinct,  to  his  mind, 
Jenner's  for  instance — that  Pasteur  wrote  :  "  From  the  life 
of  men  whose  passage  is  marked  by  a  trace  of  durable 
light,  let  us  piously  gather  up  every  word,  every  incident 
likely  to  make  known  the  incentives  of  their  great  soul,  for 
the  education  of  posterity."  He  looked  upon  the  cult  of 
great  men  as  a  great  principle  of  national  education,  and 
believed  that  children,  as  soon  as  they  could  read  should  be 
made  acquainted  with  the  heroic  or  benevolent  souls  of 
great  men.  In  his  pious  patriotism  he  saw  a  secret  of 
strength  and  of  hope  for  a  nation  in  its  reverence  for  the 
^  By  Dr.  Smiles.  [Trans.] 
215 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

memories  of  the  great,  a  sacred  and  intimate  bond  between 
the  visible  and  the  invisible  worlds.  His  soul  was  deeply 
religious.  During  his  illness — a  time  when  the  things  of 
this  world  assume  their  real  proportions — ^his  mind  rose 
far  beyond  this  earth.  The  Infinite  appeared  to  him  as  it 
did  to  Pascal,  and  with  the  same  rapture  ;  he  was  less 
attracted  by  Pascal,  when,  proud  and  disdainful,  he  exposes 
man's  weakness  for  humiliation's  sake,  than  when  he  de- 
clares that  "  Man  is  produced  but  for  Infinity,"  and  "he 
finds  constant  instruction  in  progress."  Pasteur  believed 
in  material  progress  as  well  as  in  moral  improvement  ;  he 
invariably  marked  in  the  books  he  was  reading — Pascal, 
Nicole  and  others — those  passages  which  were  both  consoling 
and  exalting. 

In  one  of  his  favourite  books,  Of  the  Knowledge  of  God 
and  of  Self  he  much  appreciated  the  passage  where  Bossuet 
ascribes  to  human  nature  "  the  idea  of  an  infinite  wisdom, 
of  an  absolute  power,  of  an  infallible  rectitude,  in  one 
word,  the  idea  of  perfection."  Another  phrase  in  the  same 
book  seemed  to  him  applicable  to  experimental  method  as 
well  as  to  the  conduct  of  life  :  "  The  greatest  aberration  oi 
the  mind  consists  in  believing  a  thing  because  it  is  desir- 
able." 

With  December,  joy  began  to  return  to  the  Ecole  Nor- 
male: the  laboratory  was  progressing  and  seemed  an 
embodiment  of  renewed  hopes  of  further  work,  M.  Godé- 
lier's  little  bulletins  now  ran:  "General  condition  most 
satisfactory.  Excellent  morale  ;  the  progress  evidenced 
daily  by  the  return  of  action  in  the  paralysed  muscles 
inspires  the  patient  with  great  confidence.  He  is  planning 
out  his  future  sériciculture  campaign,  receives  many  callers 
without  too  much  fatigue,  converses  brightly  and  often 
dictates  letters." 

216 


I865-I870 

One  visit  was  a  great  pleasure  to  Pasteur — that  of  the 
Minister,  his  cordial  friend,  Duruy,  who  brought  him  good 
news  of  the  future  of  Higher  Education.  The  augmented 
credit  which  was  granted  in  the  1869  budget  would  make 
it  possible  to  rebuild  other  laboratories  besides  that  of  the 
Ecole  Normale,  and  also  to  create  in  other  places  new 
centres  of  study  and  research.  After  so  many  efforts  and 
struggles,  it  was  at  last  possible  to  foresee  the  day  when 
chemistry,  physics,  physiology,  natural  history  and  mathe- 
matics would  each  have  an  independent  department  in  a 
great  province,  which  should  be  called  the  Practical  School 
of  Higher  Studies.  There  would  be  no  constraint,  no  hard 
and  fast  rules,  no  curriculum  but  that  of  free  study  ;  young 
men  who  were  attracted  to  pure  science,  and  others  who 
preferred  practical  application,  would  find  a  congenial 
career  before  them  as  well  as  those  who  desired  to  give 
themselves  up  to  teaching.  It  can  well  be  imagined  with 
what  delight  Pasteur  heard  these  good  tidings. 

The  bulletins  continued  to  be  favourable  :  "  (December  15)  : 
Progress  slow  but  sure  :  he  has  walked  from  his  bed  to  his 
armchair  with  some  assistance.  (December  22)  :  he  has 
gone  into  the  dining-room  for  dinner,  leaning  on  a  chair. 
(29th)  :  he  has  walked  a  few  steps  without  support." 

Pasteur  saw  in  his  convalescence  but  the  returning 
means  of  working,  and  declared  himself  ready  to  start 
again  for  the  neighbourhood  of  Alais  at  once,  instead 
of  taking  the  few  months  rest  he  was  advised  to 
have. 

He  urged  that,  after  certain  moths  and  chrysalides,  had 
been  examined  through  a  microscope,  complete  certainty 
would  be  acquired  as  to  the  condition  of  their  seed,  and 
that  perfect  seed  would  therefore  become  accessible  to  all 
tradesmen  both  great  and  small;  would  it  not  be  absurd 

217 


THE   LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

and  culpable  to  let  reasons  of  personal  health  interfere  with 
saving  so  many  poor  people  from  ruin  ? 

His  family  had  to  give  way,  and  on  January  i8,  exactly 
three  months  after  his  paralytic  stroke,  he  was  taken  to 
the  Gave  de  Lyon  by  his  wife  and  daughter  and  M.  Gernez. 
He  then  travelled,  lying  on  the  cushions  of  a  coupé  carriage, 
as  far  as  Alais,  and  drove  from  Alais  to  St.  Hippolyte  le 
Fort,  were  tests  were  being  made  on  forced  silkworms  by 
the  agricultural  society  of  Le  Vigan. 

The  house  he  came  into  was  cold  and  badly  arranged. 
M.  Gernez  improvised  a  laboratory,  with  the  assistance  oi 
Maillot  and  Raulin,  who  had  followed  their  master  down. 
From  his  sofa  or  from  his  bed,  Pasteur  directed  certain 
experiments  on  the  forced  specimens.  M.  Gernez  writes  : 
"  The  operations,  of  which  we  watched  the  phases  through 
the  microscope,  fully  justified  his  anticipations  ;  and  he 
rejoiced  that  he  had  not  given  up  the  game."  In  the 
world  of  the  Institute  his  departure  was  blamed  by  some 
and  praised  by  others  ;  but  Pasteur  merely  considered  that 
one  man's  life  is  worthless  if  not  useful  to  others. 

Dumas  wrote  to  ■  him  early  in  February  :  "  My  dear 
friend  and  colleague, — I  have  been  thinking  of  you  so 
much  !  I  dread  fatigue  for  you,  and  wish  I  could  spare  it 
you,  whilst  hoping  that  you  may  successfully  achieve  your 
great  and  patriotic  undertaking.  I  have  hesitated  to  write 
to  you  for  fear  you  should  feel  obliged  to  answer.  How- 
ever, I  should  like  to  have  direct  news  of  you,  as  detailed 
as  possible,  and,  besides  that,  I  should  be  much  obliged  if 
you  could  send  me  a  line  to  enlighten  me  on  the  two  follow- 
ing points — 

"  I.  When  are  you  going  back  to  Alais  ?  And  when  will 
your  Alais  broods  be  near  enough  to  their  time  to  be  most 
interesting  to  visit  ? 

218 


I 685- I 870 

"  2.  What  should  I  say  to  people  who  beg  for  healthy- 
seed  as  if  my  pockets  were  full  of  it  ?  I  tell  them  it  is  too 
late  ;  but  if  you  could  tell  me  a  means  of  satisfying 
them,  I  should  be  pleased,  particularly  in  the  case  of 
General  Randon  and  M.  Husson.  The  Marshal  (Vail- 
lant) is  full  of  solicitude  for  you,  and  we  never  meet  but 
our  whole  conversation  turns  upon  you.  With  me,  it  is 
natural.  With  him  less  so,  perhaps,  but  anyhow,  he  thinks 
of  you  as  much  as  is  possible,  and  this  gives  me  a  great 
deal  of  pleasure.  .  .  .  Please  present  to  Madame  Pasteur  our 
united  compliments  and  wishes.  We  wish  the  South  could 
have  the  virtues  of  Achilles'  lance — of  healing  the  wounds 
it  has  caused. — Yours  affectionately." 

Pasteur  was  reduced  to  complete  helplessness  through  hav- 
ing slipped  and  fallen  on  the  stone  floor  of  his  uncomfortable 
house,  and  was  obliged  to  dictate  the  following  letter — 

"  My  dear  master, — I  thank  you  for  thinking  of  the  poor 
invalid.  I  am  very  much  in  the  same  condition  as  when  I 
left  Paris,  my  progress  having  been  retarded  by  a  fall  on 
my  left  side.  Fortunately,  I  sustained  no  fracture,  but 
only  bruises,  which  were  naturally  painful  and  very 
slow  to  disappear. 

"  There  are  now  no  remaining  traces  of  that  accident, 
and  I  am  as  I  was  three  weeks  ago.  The  improvement  in 
the  movements  of  the  leg  and  arm  appears  to  have  begun 
again,  but  with  excessive  slowness.  I  am  about  to  have 
recourse  to  electricity,  under  the  advice  and  instructions 
of  Dr.  Godélier,  by  means  of  a  small  Ruhmkorff  apparatus 
which  he  has  kindly  sent  me.    My  brain  is  still  very  weak. 

"  This  is  how  my  days  are  spent  :  in  the  morning  my 
three  young  friends  come  to  see  me,  and  I  arrange  the 
day's  work.  I  get  up  at  twelve,  after  having  my  breakfast 
in  bed,  and  having  had  the  newspaper  read  to  me.     If  fine, 

219 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

I  then  spend  an  hour  or  two  in  the  little  garden  of  this 
house.  Usually,  if  I  am  feeling  pretty  well,  I  dictate  to 
my  dear  wife  a  page,  or  more  frequently  half  a  page,  of  a 
little  book  I  am  preparing,  and  in  which  I  intend  to  give 
a  short  account  of  the  whole  of  my  observations.  Before 
dinner,  which  I  have  alone  with  my  wife  and  my  little  girl 
in  order  to  avoid  the  fatigue  of  conversation,  my  young 
collaborators  bring  me  a  report  of  their  work.  About 
seven  or  halfpast,  I  always  feel  terribly  tired  and  in- 
clined to  sleep  twelve  consecutive  hours  ;  but  I  invariably 
wake  at  midnight,  not  to  sleep  again  until  towards  morn- 
ing, when  I  doze  again  for  an  hour  or  two.  What  makes 
me  hope  for  an  ultimate  cure  is  the  fact  that  my  appetite 
keeps  good,  and  that  those  short  hours  of  sleep  appear  to 
be  sufficient.  You  see  that  on  the  whole  I  am  doing 
nothing  rash,  being  moreover  rigorously  watched  by  my 
wife  and  little  daughter.  The  latter  pitilessly  takes  books, 
pens,  papers  and  pencils  away  from  me  with  a  persever- 
ance which  causes  me  joy  and  despair. 

"  It  is  because  I  know  your  affection  for  your  pupils  that 
1  venture  to  give  you  so  many  details.  I  will  now  answer 
the  other  questions  in  your  letter. 

"  I  shall  be  at  Alais  from  April  i  ;  that  will  be  the  time 
when  they  will  begin  hatching  seed  for  the  industrial  cam- 
paign, which  will  consequently  be  concluded  about  May  20 
at  the  latest.  Seeding  will  take  place  during  June,  more 
or  less  early  according  to  departments.  It  is  indeed  very 
late  to  obtain  seed,  especially  indigenous  seed  prepared 
according  to  my  process.  I  had  foreseen  that  I  should 
receive  demands  at  the  last  moment,  and  that  I  should 
do  well  to  put  by  a  few  ounces  ;  but,  about  three  weeks 
ago,  our  energetic  Minister  wrote  to  ask  me  for  some  seed 
to  distribute  to  schoolmasters,  and  I  promised  him  what  I 

220 


I865-I870 

had.  However  I  will  take  some  from  his  share  and  send 
you  several  lots  of  five  grammes.  The  director  of  a  most 
interesting  Austrian  establishment  has  also  ordered  two 
ounces,  saying  he  is  convinced  of  the  excellence  of  my 
method.  His  establishment  is  a  most  interesting  experi- 
mental magnanerie,  founded  in  a  handsome  Illyrian  pro- 
perty. Lastly,  I  have  also  promised  two  ounces  to  M.  le 
Comte  de  Casablanca.  One  of  my  young  men  is  going  out 
to  his  place  in  Corsica  to  do  the  seeding. 

"  I  was  much  touched  by  what  you  tell  me  of  Marshal 
Vaillant 's  kind  interest  in  my  health,  and  also  by  his  kind 
thought  in  informing  me  of  the  encouragement  given  to  my 
studies  by  the  Society  of  Agriculture.  I  wish  the  cultiva- 
tors of  your  South  had  a  little  of  his  scientific  and  method- 
ical spirit. 

"  Madame  Pasteur  joins  with  me  in  sending  you  and  your 
family,  dear  master,  the  expression  of  my  gratitude  and 
affectionate  devotion." 

The  normal  season  for  the  culture  of  silkworms  was  now 
approaching,  and  Pasteur  was  impatient  to  accumulate  the 
proofs  which  would  vouch  for  the  safety  ot  his  method; 
this  had  been  somewhat  doubted  by  the  members  of  the 
Lyons  Silks  Commission,  who  possessed  an  experimental 
nursery.  Most  of  those  gentlemen  averred  that  too  much 
confidence  should  not  be  placed  in  the  micrographs.  "Our 
Commission,"  thus  ran  their  report  of  the  preceding  year, 
"  considers  the  examination  of  corpuscles  as  a  useful  indi- 
cation which  should  be  consulted,  but  of  which  the  results 
cannot  be  presented  as  a  fact  from  which  absolute  conse- 
quences can  be  deducted." 

"They  are  absolute,"  answered  Pasteur,  who  did  not 
admit  reservations  on  a  point  which  he  considered  as 
invulnerable. 

221 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

On  March  22,  1869,  the  Commission  asked  Pasteur  for 
a  little  guaranteed  healthy  seed.  Pasteur  not  only  sent 
them  this,  but  also  sample  lots,  of  which  he  thus  predicted 
the  future  fate: — 

1.  One  lot  of  healthy  seed,  which  would  succeed  ; 

2.  One  lot  of  seed,  which  would  perish  exclusively  from 
the  corpuscle  disease  known  as  pébrine  or  gattine  ; 

3.  One  lot  of  seed,  which  would  perish  exclusively  from 
the  flachery  disease  ; 

4.  One  lot  of  seeds,  which  would  perish  partly  from  cor- 
puscle disease  and  partly  from  flachery. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  added  Pasteur,  "that  the  comparison 
between  the  results  of  those  different  lots  will  do  more  to 
enlighten  the  Commission  on  the  certainty  of  the  principles 
I  have  established  than  could  a  mere  sample  of  healthy  seed. 

"  I  desire  that  this  letter  should  be  sent  to  the  Commis- 
sion at  its  next  meeting,  and  put  down  in  the  minutes." 

The  Commission  accepted  with  pleasure  these  unexpected 
surprise  boxes. 

About  the  same  time  one  of  his  assistants,  Maillot,  started 
for  Corsica  at  M.  de  Casabianca's  request.  He  took  with 
him  six  lots  of  healthy  seed  to  Vescovato,  a  few  miles  from 
Bastia. 

The  rest  of  the  colony  returned  to  the  Pont  Gisquet,  near 
Alais,  that  mulberry-planted  retreat,  where,  according  to 
Pasteur,  everything  was  conducive  to  work.  Pasteur  now 
looked  forward  to  his  definitive  victory,  and,  full  of  confi- 
dence, organized  his  pupils'  missions.  M.  Duclaux,  who 
was  coming  to  the  Pont  Gisquet  to  watch  the  normal 
broods,  would  afterwards  go  into  the  Cevennes  to  verify 
the  seedings  made  on  the  selection  system.  M.  Gernez 
was  to  note  the  results  of  some  seedings  made  by  Pas- 
teur himself  the  preceding  year  at  M.  Raibaud-Lange's,  at 

222 


I865-I870 

Paillerols,  near  Digne  (Basses  Alpes).  Raulin  alone  would 
remain  at  the  Pont  Gisquet  to  study  some  points  of  detail 
concerning  the  flachery  disease.  So  many  results  ought 
surely  to  reduce  contradictors  to  silence  ! 

"  My  dear  friend  and  colleague,"  wrote  Dumas  to  Pasteur, 
"  I  need  not  tell  you  with  what  anxiety  we  are  watching 
the  progress  of  your  precious  health  and  of  your  silkworm 
campaign.  I  shall  certainly  be  at  Alais  at  the  end  of  the 
week,  and  I  shall  see,  under  your  kind  direction,  all  that 
may  furnish  me  with  the  means  of  guiding  public  opinion. 
You  have  quacks  to  fight  and  envy  to  conquer,  probably  a 
hopeless  task;  the  best  is  to  march  right  through  them. 
Truth  leading  the  way.  It  is  not  likely  that  they  will  be 
converted  or  reduced  to  silence." 

Whilst  these  expeditions  were  being  planned,  a  letter  from 
M.  Gressier,  the  Minister  of  Agriculture,  arrived  very 
inopportunely.  M.  Gressier  was  better  versed  in  sub  rosâ 
ministerial  combinations  than  in  seeding  processes,  and  he 
asked  Pasteur  to  examine  three  lots  of  seeds  sent  to  him 
by  a  Mademoiselle  Amat,  of  Brives-la-Gaillarde,  who  was 
celebrated  in  the  department  of  the  Corrèze  for  her  good 
management  of  silkworms.  This  magnanarelle,  having  had 
some  successful  results,  was  begging  his  Excellency  to 
accord  to  those  humble  seeds  his  particular  consideration, 
and  to  have  them  developed  with  every  possible  care. 

At  the  same  time  she  was  sending  samples  of  the  same 
seeds  to  various  places  in  the  Gard,  the  Bouches  du  Rhône, 
etc.,  etc. 

M.  Gressier  (April  20)  asked  Pasteur  to  examine  them 
and  to  give  him  a  detailed  report.  Pasteur  answered  four 
days  afterwards  in  terms  which  were  certainly  not  softened 
by  the  usual  administrative  precautions — 

"  Monsieur  le  Ministre,    .  .  .    these  three  sorts  of  seed 

223 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

are  worthless.  If  they  are  developed,  even  in  very  small 
nurseries,  they  will  in  every  instance  succumb  to  corpuscle 
disease.  If  my  seeding  process  had  been  employed,  it  would 
not  have  required  ten  minutes  to  discover  that  Mademoiselle 
Amat's  cocoons,  though  excellent  for  spinning  purposes, 
were  absolutely  unfit  for  reproduction.  My  seeding  process 
gives  the  means  of  recognizing  those  broods  which  are 
suitable  for  seed,  whilst  opposing  the  production  of  the 
infected  eggs  which  year  by  year  flood  the  silkworm  culti- 
vating departments. 

"  I  shall  be  much  obliged,  Monsieur  le  Ministre,  if  you  will 
kindly  inform  the  Prefect  of  the  Corrèze  of  the  forecasts 
which  I  now  impart  to  you,  and  if  you  will  ask  him  to 
report  to  you  the  results  of  Mademoiselle  Amat's  three  lots. 

"  For  my  part,  I  feel  so  sure  of  what  I  now  affirm,  that  I 
shall  not  even  trouble  to  test,  by  hatching  them,  the  samples 
which  you  have  sent  me.  I  have  thrown  them  into  the 
river.  ..." 

J.  B.  Dumas  had  come  to  Alais,  Messrs.  Gernez  and 
Duclaux  now  returned  from  their  expeditions.  In  two 
hundred  broods,  each  of  one  or  two  ounces  of  seed,  coming 
from  three  different  sources  and  hatched  in  various  localities, 
not  one  failure  was  recorded.  The  Lyons  Commission,  which 
had  made  a  note  of  Pasteur's  bold  prognosis,  found  it  absolutely 
correct  ;  the  excellence  of  the  method  was  acknowledged 
by  all  who  had  conscientiously  tried  it.  Now  that  the 
scourge  was  really  conquered,  Pasteur  imagined  that  all  he 
had  to  do  was  to  set  up  a  table  of  the  results  sent  to  him. 
But,  from  the  south  of  France  and  from  Corsica,  jealousies 
were  beginning  their  work  of  undermining  ;  pseudo-scientists 
in  their  vanity  proclaimed  that  everything  was  illusory 
that  was  outside  their  own  affirmations,  and  the  seed 
merchants,  willing  to  ruin  everybody  rather  than  jeopardize 

224 


I865-I870 

their  miserable  interests,  "  did  not  hesitate  (we  are  quoting 
M.  Gernez)  to  perpetrate  the  most  odious  falsehoods." 

Instead  of  being  annoyed,  saddened,  often  indignant  as  he 
was,  Pasteur  would  have  done  more  wisely  to  look  back 
upon  the  history  of  most  great  discoveries  and  of  the  initial 
difficulties  which  beset  them.  But  he  could  not  look  upon 
such  things  philosophically  ;  stupidity  astonished  him  and 
he  could  not  easily  bring  himself  to  believe  in  bad  faith. 
His  friends  in  Alais  society,  M.  de  Lachadenède,  M. 
Despeyroux,  professor  of  chemistry,  might  have  reminded 
him,  in  their  evening  conversations,  of  the  difficulties  ever 
encountered  in  the  service  of  mankind.  The  prejudice 
against  potatoes,  for  instance,  had  lasted  three  hundred 
years.  When  they  were  brought  over  from  Peru  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  it  was  asserted  that  they  caused  leprosy  ;  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  that  accusation  was  recognized  to  be 
absurd,  but  it  was  said  that  they  caused  fever.  One  century 
later,  in  1771,  the  Besançon  Academy  of  Medicine  having 
opened  a  competition  for  the  answer  to  the  following  ques- 
tion of  general  interest:  "What  plants  can  be  used  to 
supplement  other  foods  in  times  of  famine?"  a  military 
apothecary,  named  Parmentier,  competed  and  proved  vic- 
toriously that  the  potato  was  quite  harmless.  After  that, 
he  began  a  propagandist  campaign  in  favour  of  potatoes. 
But  prejudice  still  subsisted  in  spite  of  his  experimental 
fields  and  of  the  dinners  in  the  menu  of  which  potatoes  held 
a  large  place.  Louis  XVL  had  then  an  inspiration  worthy 
of  Henry  IV.  ;  he  appeared  in  public,  wearing  in  his  button- 
hole Parmentier's  little  mauve  flower,  and  thus  glorified  it 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Court  and  of  the  crowd. 

But  such  comparisons  had  no  weight  with  Pasteur  ;  he 
was  henceforth  sure  of  his  method  and  longed  to  see  it 
adopted,  unable  to  understand  why  there  should  be  further 

VOL.  I  225  Q 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

discussions  now  that  the  silkworm  industry  was  saved  and 
the  bread  of  so  many  poor  families  assured.  He  was 
learning  to  know  all  the  bitterness  of  sterile  polemics,  and 
the  obstacles  placed  one  by  one  in  the  way  of  those  who 
attempt  to  give  humanity  anything  new  and  useful. 
Fortunately  he  had  what  so  many  men  of  research  have 
lacked,  the  active  and  zealous  collaboration  of  pupils  imbued 
with  his  principles,  and  the  rarer  and  priceless  blessing  of  a 
home  life  mingling  with  his  laboratory  life.  His  wife  and 
his  daughter,  a  mere  child,  shared  his  sériciculture  labours  ; 
they  had  become  inagnanarelles  equal  to  the  most  capable 
in  Alais.  Another  privilege  was  the  advocacy  of  some 
champions  quite  unknown  to  him.  Those  who  loved  science 
and  who  understood  that  it  would  now  become,  thanks  to 
Pasteur,  an  important  factor  in  agricultural  and  serici- 
cultural  matters  hailed  his  achievements  with  joy.  For 
instance,  a  letter  was  published  on  July  8,  1869,  in  the 
Journal  of  Practical  Agriculture  by  a  cultivator  who  had 
obtained  excellent  results  by  applying  Pasteur's  method; 
the  letter  concluded  as  follows  :  "  We  should  be  obliged,  if, 
through  the  columns  of  your  paper,  you  would  express  to 
M.  Pasteur  our  feelings  of  gratitude  for  his  laborious  and 
valuable  researches.  We  firmly  hope  that  he  will  one  day 
reap  the  fruit  of  his  arduous  labours,  and  be  amply  compen- 
sated for  the  passionate  attacks  of  which  he  is  now  the 
object." 

"Monsieur  Pasteur,"  once  said  the  Mayor  of  Alais,  Dr. 
Pages,  "  if  what  you  are  showing  me  becomes  verified  in 
current  practice,  nothing  can  repay  you  for  your  work,  but 
the  town  of  Alais  will  raise  a  golden  statue  to  you." 

Marshal  Vaillant  began  to  take  more  and  more  interest 
in  this  question,  which  was  not  darkened,  in  his  eyes  at  least, 
by  the  dust  of  polemics.    The  old  soldier,  always  scrupu- 

226 


I865-I870 

lously  punctual  at  the  meetings  of  the  Institute  and  of  the 
Imperial  and  Central  Society  of  Agriculture,  had  amused 
himself  by  organizing  a  little  silkworm  nursery  on  the 
Pasteur  system,  in  his  own  study,  in  the  very  centre  of 
Paris.  These  experiments,  in  the  Imperial  palace  might 
have  reminded  an  erudite  reader  of  Olivier  de  Serres' 
Théâtre  d' Agriculture  of  the  time  when  the  said  Olivier  de 
Serres  planted  mulberry  trees  in  the  Tuileries  gardens  at 
Henry  IV's  request,  and  when,  according  to  the  old  agricul- 
tural writer,  a  house  was  arranged  at  the  end  of  the  gardens 
"accommodated  with  all  things  necessary  as  well  for  the 
feeding  of  the  worms  as  for  the  preparation  of  silk." 

The  Marshal,  though  calling  himself  the  most  modest  of 
sericicultors,  had  been  able  to  appreciate  the  safety  of  a 
method  which  produced  the  same  results  in  Paris  as  at  the 
Pont  Gisquet;  the  octogenarian  veteran  dwelt  with  com- 
placency on  the  splendid  condition  of  his  silkworms  in  all 
their  phases  from  the  minute  worm  hatched  from  the  seed- 
like eg^  to  the  splendid  cocoon  of  white  or  yellow  silk. 

It  occurred  to  Vaillant  to  suggest  a  decisive  experiment 
in  favour  of  Pasteur  and  of  the  silkworm  industry.  The 
Prince  Imperial  owned  in  Illyria,  about  six  leagues  from 
Trieste,  a  property  called  Villa  Vicentina .  One  of  Napoleon  '  s 
sisters,  Elisa  Bonaparte,  had  lived  peacefully  there  after  the 
fall  of  the  first  Empire,  and  had  left  it  to  her  daughter, 
Princess  Baciocchi,  who  bequeathed  it  to  the  Prince 
Imperial,  with  the  rest  of  her  fortune.  Vines  and  mulberry 
trees  grew  plentifully  on  that  vast  domain,  but  the  produce 
of  cocoons  was  nil,  pébrine  and  flachery  having  devastated 
the  place.  Marshal  Vaillant,  Minister  of  the  Emperor's 
Household,  desired  to  render  the  princely  property  once 
again  productive  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  give  his  colleague 
of  the  Institute  an  opportunity  of  ''  definitely  silencing  the 

227 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

opposition  created  by  ignorance  and  jealousy."  In  a  letter 
dated  October  9,  he  requested  Pasteur  to  send  out  900  ounces 
of  seed  to  Villa  Vicentina,  a  large  quantity,  for  one  ounce 
produced,  on  an  average  thirty  kilogrammes  of  cocoons.  Six 
days  later  the  Marshal  wrote  to  M.  Tisserand,  the  director 
of  the  Crown  agricultural  establishments,  who  knew  Villa 
Vicentina  :  "  I  have  suggested  to  the  Emperor  that  M, 
Pasteur  should  be  offered  â  lodging  at  Villa  Vicentina;  the 
Emperor  acquiesces  in  the  most  gracious  manner.  Tell  me 
whether  that  is  possible." 

M.  Tisserand,  heartily  applauding  the  Marshal's  excellent 
idea,  described  the  domain  and  the  dwelling  house,  Villa 
Elisa,  a  white  Italian  two-storied  house,  situated  amongst 
lawns  and  trees  in  a  park  of  sixty  hectares.  "  It  would 
indeed  be  well,"  continued  M.  Tisserand,  "  that  M.  Pasteur 
should  find  peace,  rest,  and  a  return  of  the  health  he  has 
so  valiantly  compromised  in  his  devotion  to  his  country,  in 
the  midst  of  the  lands  which  will  be  the  first  to  profit  by 
the  fruit  of  his  splendid  discoveries  and  where  his  name 
will  be  blessed  before  long." 

Pasteur  started  three  weeks  later  with  his  family  ;  the 
long  journey  had  to  be  taken  in  short  stages,  the  state 
of  his  health  still  being  very  precarious.  He  stopped  at 
Alais  on  the  way,  in  order  to  fetch  the  selected  seed,  and 
on  November  25,  at  9  p.m.,  he  reached  Villa  Vicentina. 
The  fifty  tenants  of  the  domain  did  not  suspect  that  the 
new  arrival  would  bring  back  with  him  the  prosperity  of 
former  years.  Raulin,  the  "  temporizer,"  joined  his  master 
a  few  weeks  later. 

This  was  a  period  not  of  rest,  but  of  a  great  calm,  with 
regular  work  under  a  pure  sky.  Whilst  waiting  for 
hatching  time,  Pasteur  continued  to  dictate  to  his  wife  the 
book  he  had  mentioned  to  J.  B.  Dumas  in  a  letter  from  St. 

228 


1865-1870 

Hippolyte  le  Fort.  But  the  projected  little  book  was 
changing  its  shape  and  growing  into  a  two- volume  work 
full  of  facts  and  documents.  It  was  ready  to  publish  by 
April,  1870. 

When  the  moment  for  hatching  the  seed  had  arrived, 
Pasteur  distributed  twenty-five  ounces  among  the  tenants 
and  kept  twenty-five  ounces  for  himself.  An  incident  dis- 
turbed these  days  of  work  :  a  steward,  who  had  by  him  an 
old  box  of  Japanese  seed,  sold  this  suspicious  seed  with  the 
rest.  The  idea  that  confiding  peasants  had  thus  been 
swindled  sent  Pasteur  beside  himself  ;  in  his  violent  anger 
he  sent  for  this  steward,  overwhelmed  him  with  reproaches 
and  forbade  him  ever  to  show  his  face  before  him 
again. 

"  The  Marshal,"  wrote  Dumas  to  Pasteur,  "  has  told  me 
of  the  swindles  you  have  come  across  and  which  have  upset 
you  so  much.  Do  not  worry  unreasonably  ;  if  I  were  you 
I  would  merely  insert  a  line  in  a  local  paper  :  '  M.  Pasteur 
is  only  answerable  for  the  seeds  he  himself  sells  to  culti- 
vators.'" Those  cultivators  soon  were  duly  edified.  The 
results  of  the  seeding  process  were  represented  by  a  harvest 
of  cocoons  which  brought  in,  after  all  expenses  were  paid, 
a  profit  of  22,000  francs,  the  first  profit  earned  by  the  pro- 
perty for  ten  years.  This  was  indeed  an  Imperial  present 
from  Pasteur  ;  the  Emperor  was  amazed  and  delighted. 

The  Government  then  desired  to  do  for  Pasteur  what  had 
been  done  for  Dumas  and  Claude  Bernard,  that  is,  give 
him  a  seat  in  the  Senate.  His  most  decided  partisan  was 
the  competitor  that  several  political  personages  suggested 
against  him  :  Henri  Sainte  Claire  Deville.  Deville  wrote 
to  Mme.  Pasteur  in  June  :  "  You  must  know  that  if  Pasteur 
becomes  a  Senator,  and  Pasteur  alone,  you  understand — 
for  they  cannot  elect  two  chemists  at  once  ! — it  will  be  a 

229 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

triumph  for  your  friend — a  triumph  and  an  unmixed 
pleasure." 

The  projected  decree  was  one  of  eighteen  then  in  prepara- 
tion. The  final  list — the  last  under  the  Empire — where 
Emile  Augier  was  to  represent  French  literature  was 
postponed  from  day  to  day. 

Pasteur  left  Villa  Vicentina  on  July  6,  taking  with  him 
the  gratitude  of  the  people  whose  good  genius  he  had  been 
for  nearly  eight  months.  In  northern  Italy,  as  well  as  in 
Austria,  his  process  of  cellular  seeding  was  now  applied 
with  success. 

Before  returning  to  France  he  went  to  Vienna  and  then 
to  Munich:  he  desired  to  talk  with  the  German  chemist 
Liebig,  the  most  determined  of  his  adversaries.  He  thought 
it  impossible  that  Liebig 's  ideas  on  fermentation  should  not 
have  been  shaken  and  altered  in  the  last  thirteen  years. 
Liebig  could  not  still  be  affirming  that  the  presence  of  de- 
composing animal  or  vegetable  matter  should  be  necessary 
to  fermentation  !  That  theory  had  been  destroyed  by  a 
simple  and  decisive  experiment  of  Pasteur's  :  he  had  sown 
a  trace  of  yeast  in  water  containing  but  sugar  and  mineral 
crystallized  salts,  and  had  seen  this  yeast  multiply  itself 
and  produce  a  regular  alcoholic  fermentation. 

Since  all  nitrogenized  organic  matter  (constituting  the 
ferment,  according  to  Liebig)  was  absent,  Pasteur  considered 
that  he  thus  proved  the  life  of  the  ferment  and  the  absence 
of  any  action  from  albuminoid  matter  in  a  stage  of  decom- 
position. The  death  phenomenon  now  appeared  as  a  life 
phenomenon.  How  could  Liebig  deny  the  independent 
existence  of  ferments  in  their  infinite  littleness  and  their 
power  of  destroying  and  transforming  everything?  What 
did  he  think  of  all  these  new  ideas?  would  he  still  write,  as 
in  1845:  "As  to  the  opinion  which  explains  putrefaction 

230 


I865-I870 

of  animal  substances  by  the  presence  of  microscopic  animal- 
culae,  it  may  be  compared  to  that  of  a  child  who  would 
explain  the  rapidity  of  the  Rhine  current  by  attributing  it 
to  the  violent  movement  of  the  numerous  mill  wheels  of 
Mayence  ?  " 

Since  that  ingeniously  fallacious  paragraph,  many  results 
had  come  to  light.  Perhaps  Liebig,  who  in  185 1  hailed  J.  B. 
Dumas  as  a  master,  had  now  come  to  Dumas'  point  of 
view  respecting  the  fruitfulness  of  the  Pastorian  theory. 
That  theory  was  extended  to  diseases  ;  the  infinitely  small 
appeared  as  disorganizers  of  living  tissues.  The  part  played 
by  the  corpuscles  in  the  contagious  and  hereditary  pebrine 
led  to  many  reflections  on  the  contagious  and  hereditary 
element  of  human  diseases.  Even  the  long-postponed  trans- 
mission of  certain  diseases  was  becoming  clearer  now  that, 
within  the  vibrio  of  flachery,  other  corpuscles  were  found, 
germs  of  the  flachery  disease,  ready  to  break  out  from  one 
year  to  another. 

To  convince  Liebig,  to  bring  him  to  acknowledge  the 
triumph  of  those  ideas  with  the  pleasure  of  a  true  savant^ 
such  was  Pasteur's  desire  when  he  entered  Liebig's  labora- 
tory. The  tall  old  man,  in  a  long  frock  coat,  received  him 
with  kindly  courtesy  ;  but  when  Pasteur,  who  was  eager 
to  come  to  the  object  of  his  visit,  tried  to  approach  the  deli- 
cate subject,  Liebig,  without  losing  his  amenity,  refused  all 
discussion,  alleging  indisposition.  Pasteur  did  not  insist, 
but  promised  himself  that  he  would  return  to  the  charge. 


231 


CHAPTER  VII 

187O-1872 

PASTEUR,  on  his  return,  spent  forty-eight  hours  in 
Strasburg,  which  was  for  him  full  of  memories  of  his 
laborious  days  at  the  Faculty  of  that  town,  between  1848 
and  1854,  a-t  a  time  when  rivalry  already  existed  between 
France  and  Germany,  a  generous  rivalry  of  moral  and 
intellectual  effort.  He  then  heard  for  the  first  time  of  the 
threatening  war;  all  his  hopes  of  progress  founded  on 
peace,  through  scientific  discoveries,  began  to  crumble 
awa}^,  and  his  disappointment  was  embittered  by  the  recol- 
lection of  many  illusions. 

Never  was  more  cruel  rebuff  given  to  the  generous  efforts 
of  a  policy  of  sentiment  :  after  having  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  independence  and  unity  of  Italy,  France  had  sympa- 
thized with  Germany's  desire  for  unity,  and  few  of  the 
counsellors,  or  even  the  adversaries  of  the  Empire,  would 
not  have  defended  this  idea,  which  was  supposed  to  lead  to 
civilization.  During  that  period  of  anxious  waiting  (begin- 
ning of  July,  1870),  when  the  most  alarming  news  was 
daily  published  in  Strasburg,  it  did  not  occur  to  any  one  to 
look  back  upon  quotations  from  papers  only  a  few  years 
old,  though  in  that  very  town  a  pamphlet  might  have  been 
found,  written  by  Edmond  About  in  i860,  and  containing 
the  following  words — 

232 


I 870- 1872 

''  Let  Germany  become  united  !  France  has  no  dearer  or 
more  ardent  desire,  for  she  loves  the  German  nation  with  a 
disinterested  friendship.  France  is  not  alarmed  at  seeing 
the  formation  of  an  Italian  nation  of  26,000,000  men  in 
the  South;  she  need  not  fear  to  see  32,000,000  Germans 
found  a  great  people  on  the  Eastern  frontier." 

Proud  to  be  first  to  proclaim  the  rights  of  nations  ;  in- 
fluenced by  mingled  feelings  of  kindliness,  trustfulness, 
optimism  and  a  certain  vanity  of  disinterestedness,  France, 
who  loves  to  be  loved,  imagined  that  the  world  would  be 
grateful  for  her  international  sociability,  and  that  her 
smiles  were  sufficient  to  maintain  peace  and  joy  in  Europe. 

Far  from  being  alarmed  by  certain  symptoms  in  her 
neighbours,  she  voluntarily  closed  her  eyes  to  the  manœu- 
vres of  the  Prussian  troops,  her  ears  to  the  roar  of  the 
artillery  practice  constantly  heard  across  her  eastern  fron- 
tier ;  in  1863  patrols  of  German  cavalry  had  come  as  far 
as  Wissemburg.  But  people  thought  that  Germany  was 
"  playing  soldiers."  Duruy,  who  shared  at  that  time  the 
general  delusion,  wrote  in  some  traveller's  notes  published 
in  1864  :  "  We  have  had  your  German  Rhine,  and  though 
you  have  garnished  it  with  bristling  fortresses  and  cannon 
turning  France-wards,  we  do  not  wish  to  have  it  again, 
...  for  the  time  for  conquests  is  past.  Conquests  shall 
only  now  be  made  with  the  free  consent  of  nations.  Too 
much  blood  has  been  poured  into  the  Rhine!  What  an 
immense  people  would  arise  if  they  who  were  struck  down 
by  the  sword  along  its  banks  could  be  restored  to  life  !  " 

After  the  thunderclap  of  Sadowa,  the  French  Government, 
believing,  in  its  infatuation,  that  it  was  entitled  to  a  share 
of  gratitude  and  security,  asked  for  the  land  along  the 
Rhine  as  far  as  Mayence  ;  this  territorial  aggrandizement 
might  have  compensated  for  Prussia's  redoubtable  conquests. 

233 


THE  LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

The  refusal  was  not  long  in  coming.  The  Rhenish  provinces 
immediately  swarmed  with  Prussian  troops.  The  Emperor, 
awaking  from  his  dream,  hesitating  to  make  war,  sent 
another  proposition  to  Prussia  :  that  the  Rhenish  provinces 
should  become  a  buffer  State.  The  same  haughty  answer 
was  returned.  France  then  hoped  for  the  cession  of  Lux- 
emburg, a  hope  all  the  more  natural  in  that  the  populations 
of  Luxemburg  were  willing  to  vote  for  annexation  to 
France,  and  such  a  policy  would  have  been  in  accordance 
with  the  rights  of  nations.  But  this  request,  apparently 
entertained  at  first  by  Prussia,  was  presently  hampered  by 
intrigues  which  caused  its  rejection.  Duped,  not  even 
treated  as  an  arbiter,  but  merely  as  a  contemptible  witness, 
France  dazzled  herself  for  a  moment  with  the  brilliant 
Exhibition  of  1867.  But  it  was  a  last  and  splendid  flash  ; 
the  word  which  is  the  bane  of  nations  and  of  sovereigns, 
"  to-morrow,"  was  on  the  lips  of  the  ageing  Emperor.  The 
reform  in  the  French  army,  which  should  have  been  bold 
and  immediate,  was  postponed  and  afterwards  begun  jerkily 
and  unmethodically.  Prussia  however  affected  to  be  alarmed. 
Then  irritation  at  having  been  duped,  the  evidence  of  a 
growing  peril,  a  lingering  hope  in  the  military  fortune  of 
France — everything  conspired  to  give  to  an  incident,  pro- 
voked by  Prussia,  the  proportions  of  a  casus  belli.  But,  in 
spite  of  so  man}-  grievances,  people  did  not  5-et  believe 
in  this  sudden  return  to  barbarism.  The  Imperial  policy 
had  indeed  been  blindly  inconsistent  ;  after  opening  a  wide 
prospect  of  unity  before  the  German  people  it  had  been 
thought  possible  to  say  "No  further  than  the  Main,"  as  if 
the  impetuous  force  of  a  popular  movement  could  be  arrested 
after  once  being  started.  France  suddenly  opened  her  eyes 
to  her  danger  and  to  the  failure  of  her  policy.  But  if  a 
noble  sentiment  of  generosity  had  been  mingled  with  the 

234 


I870-I872 

desire  to  increase  her  territory  without  shedding  a  drop  of 
blood,  she  had  had  the  honour  of  being  in  the  vanguard  of 
progress.  Were  great  ideas  of  peace  and  human  brother- 
hood about  to  be  engulfed  in  a  war  which  would  throw 
Europe  into  an  era  of  violence  and  brutality? 

Pasteur,  profoundly  saddened,  could  not  bear  to  realize 
that  his  ideal  of  the  peaceful  and  beneficent  destiny  of 
France  was  about  to  vanish  ;  he  left  Strasburg — never  to 
return  to  it — a  prey  to  the  most  sombre  thoughts. 

When  he  returned  to  Paris,  he  met  Sainte  Claire  Deville, 
who  had  come  back  from  a  scientific  mission  in  Germany, 
and  who  had  for  the  first  time  lost  his  brightness  and 
optimism.  The  war  appeared  to  him  absolutely  disastrous. 
He  had  seen  the  Prussian  army,  redoubtable  in  its  skilful 
organization,  closing  along  the  frontier  ;  the  invasion  was 
certain,  and  there  was  nothing  to  stay  it.  Everything  was 
lacking  in  France,  even  in  arsenals  like  Strasburg.  At 
Toul,  on  the  second  line  of  fortifications,  so  little  attention 
was  paid  to  defence  that  the  Government  had  thought  that 
the  place  could  be  used  as  a  dépôt  for  the  infantry  and 
cavalry  reserves,  who  could  await  there  the  order  for 
crossing  the  Rhine. 

"  Ah!  my  lads,  my  poor  lads!"  said  Sainte  Claire  Deville 
to  his  Ecole  Normale  students,  "it  is  all  up  with  us  !  " 
And  he  was  seen,  between  two  experiments,  wiping  his 
eyes  with  the  corner  of  his  laboratory  apron. 

The  students,  with  the  ordinary  confidence  of  youth, 
could  not  believe  that  an  invasion  should  be  so  imminent. 
However,  in  spite  of  the  privilege  which  frees  Normaliens 
from  any  military  service  in  exchange  for  a  ten  years' 
engagement  at  the  University,  they  put  patriotic  duty  above 
any  future  University  appointments,  and  entered  the  ranks 
as  private  soldiers.     Those  who  had  been  favoured  by  being 

235 


THE  LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

immediately  incorporated  in  a  battalion  of  chasseurs  à  pied 
the  dépôt  of  which  was  at  Vincennes,  spent  their  last  evening 
— their  vigil  as  they  called  it — in  the  drawing-room  of  the 
sub-director  of  the  Ecole,  Bertin.  Sainte  Claire  Deville  and 
Pasteur  were  there,  also  Duruy,  whose  three  sons  had 
enlisted.  Pasteur's  son,  aged  eighteen,  was  also  on  the 
eve  of  his  departure. 

Every  one  of  the  students  at  the  Ecole  Normale  enlisted, 
some  as  chasseurs  à  pied,  some  in  a  line  regiment,  others 
with  the  marines,  in  the  artillery,  even  with  the  franc  tireurs. 
Pasteur  wished  to  be  enrolled  in  the  garde  nationale  with 
Duruy  and  Bertin,  but  he  had  to  be  reminded  that  a  half- 
paralysed  man  was  unfit  for  service.  After  the  departure 
of  all  the  students,  the  Ecole  Normale  fell  into  the  silence 
of  deserted  houses.  M.  Bouillier,  the  director,  and  Bertin 
decided  to  turn  it  into  an  ambulance,  a  sort  of  home  for  the 
Normaliens  who  were  stationed  in  various  quarters  of  Paris. 

Pasteur,  unable  to  serve  his  country  except  by  his 
scientific  researches,  had  the  firm  intention  of  continuing 
his  work  ;  but  he  was  overwhelmed  by  the  reverses  which 
fell  upon  France,  the  idea  of  the  bloodshed  and  of  his  invaded 
country  oppressed  him  like  a  monomania. 

"  Do  not  stay  in  Paris,"  Bertin  said  to  him,  echoed  by 
Dr.  Godélier.  "  You  have  no  right  to  stay  ;  you  would  be 
a  useless  mouth  during  the  siege,"  he  added,  almost  cheer- 
fully, earnestly  desiring  to  see  his  friend  out  of  harm's 
way.  Pasteur  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded,  and  started 
for  Arbois  on  September  5,  his  heart  aching  for  the  sorrows 
of  France. 

Some  notes  and  letters  enable  us  to  follow  him  there,  in 
the  daily  detail  of  his  life,  amongst  his  books,  his  plans  of 
future  work,  and  now  and  then  his  outbursts  of  passionate 
grief.    He  tried  to  return  to  the  books  he  loved,  to  feel  over 

236 


I 870- I 87 2 

again  the  attraction  of  "  all  that  is  great  and  beautiful  "  to 
quote  a  favourite  phrase.  He  read  at  that  time  Laplace's 
Exposition  du  Système  du  Monde,  and  even  copied  out  some 
fragments,  general  ideas,  concurring  with  his  own.  The 
vision  of  a  Galileo  or  a  Newton  rising  through  a  series  of 
inductions  from  "  particular  phenomena  to  others  more 
far-reaching,  and  from  those  to  the  general  laws  of  Nature," 
on  this  earth,  "itself  so  small  a  part  of  the  solar  system, 
and  disappearing  entirely  in  the  immensity  of  the  heavens, 
of  which  that  system  is  but  an  unimportant  corner," — that 
vision  enveloped  Pasteur  with  the  twofold  feeling  with 
which  every  man  must  be  imbued  :  humility  before  the 
Great  Mystery,  and  admiration  for  those  who,  raising  a 
corner  of  the  veil,  prove  that  genius  is  divinely  inspired. 
Such  reading  helped  Pasteur  through  the  sad  time  of 
anxious  waiting,  and  he  would  repeat  as  in  brighter  days, 
^^  Laboretnus.^^ 

But  sometimes,  when  he  was  sitting  quietly  with  his  wife 
and  daughter,  the  trumpet  call  would  sound,  with  which 
the  Arbois  crier  preceded  the  proclaiming  of  news.  Then 
everything  was  forgotten,  the  universal  order  of  things  of 
no  account,  and  Pasteur's  anguished  soul  would  concentrate 
itself  on  that  imperceptible  corner  of  the  universe,  France, 
his  suffering  country.  He  would  go  downstairs,  mix  with 
groups  standing  on  the  little  bridge  across  the  Cuisance, 
listen  breathlessly  to  the  official  communication,  and  sadly 
go  back  to  the  room  where  the  memories  of  his  father  only 
emphasized  the  painful  contrast  with  the  present  time.  In 
the  most  prominent  place  hung  a  large  medallion  of  General 
Bonaparte,  by  the  Franc-Comtois  Huguenin,  the  habit  of 
authority  visible  in  the  thin  energetic  face  ;  then  a  larger 
effigy  in  bronzed  plaster  of  Napoleon  in  profile,  in  a  very 
simple  uniform  ;  by  the  mantelpiece  a  lithograph  of  the  little 

237 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

King  of  Rome  with  his  curly  head;  on  the  bookshelves, 
well  within  reach,  books  on  the  Great  Epoch,  read  over 
and  over  again  by  the  old  soldier  who  had  died  in  the 
humble  room  which  still  reflected  some  of  the  Imperial 
glory. 

That  glory,  that  legend  had  enveloped  the  childhood  and 
youth  of  Pasteur,  who,  as  he  advanced  in  life,  still  pre- 
served the  same  enthusiasm.  His  imagination  pictured  the 
Emperor,  calm  in  the  midst  of  battles,  or  reviewing  his 
troops  surrounded  by  an  escort  of  field  marshals,  entering 
as  a  sovereign  a  capital  not  his  own,  then  overwhelmed  by 
numbers  at  Waterloo,  and  finally  condemned  to  exile  and 
inactivity,  and  dying  in  a  long  drawn  agony.  Glorious  or 
lugubrious,  those  visions  came  back  to  him  with  poignant 
insistency  in  those  days  of  September,  1870.  What  was 
Waterloo  compared  to  Sedan  !  The  departure  for  St. 
Helena  had  the  grandeur  of  the  end  of  an  epic  ;  it  seemed 
almost  enviable  by  the  side  of  that  last  episode  of  the 
Second  Empire,  when  Napoleon  III,  vanquished,  spared  by 
the  death  which  he  wooed,  left  Sedan  by  the  Donchery 
road  to  enter  the  cottage  where  Bismarck  was  to  inform 
him  of  the  rendezvous  given  by  the  King  of  Prussia. 

The  Emperor  had  now  but  a  shadow  of  power,  having 
made  the  Empress  Regent  before  he  left  Paris  ;  it  was 
therefore  not  the  sword  of  France,  but  his  own,  that  he  was 
about  to  surrender.  But  he  thought  he  might  hope  that 
the  King  of  Prussia  would  show  clemency  to  the  French 
army  and  people,  having  many  times  declared  that  he  made 
war  on  the  Emperor  and  not  on  France. 

"  Can  it  be  credited,"  said  Bismarck,  speaking  afterwards 
of  that  interview,  "  that  he  actually  believed  in  our  genero- 
sity !  "  The  chancellor  added,  speaking  of  that  somewhat 
protracted  tête-à-tête^  "  I  felt  as  I  used  to  in  my  5"outh,  when 

238 


I870-I872 

my  partner  in  a  cotillon  was  a  girl  to  whom  I  did  not  quite 
know  what  to  say,  and  whom  nobody  would  fetch  away  for 
a  turn  !  " 

Napoleon  III  and  the  King  of  Prussia  met  in  the  Château 
of  Belle  vue,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sedan,  opposite  a 
peninsula  henceforth  known  by  the  sad  name  of  "  Camp  of 
Misery."  The  Emperor  looked  for  the  last  time  upon  his 
83,000  soldiers,  disarmed,  starving,  waiting  in  the  mud  for 
the  Prussian  escort  which  was  to  convey  them  as  prisoners 
far  beyond  the  Rhine.  Wilhelm  did  not  even  pronounce 
the  word  peace. 

Jules  Favre,  taking  possession  on  September  6  of  the 
department  of  Foreign  Affairs,  recalled  to  the  diplomatic 
agents  the  fall  of  the  Empire  and  the  words  of  the  King  of 
Prussia  ;  then  in  an  unaccustomed  outburst  of  eloquence 
exclaimed:  "Does  the  King  of  Prussia  wish  to  continue 
an  impious  struggle  which  will  be  as  fatal  to  him  as  to  us  ? 
Does  he  wish  to  give  to  the  world  in  the  nineteenth  century 
the  cruel  spectacle  of  two  nations  destroying  each  other 
and  forgetful  of  human  feelings,  of  reason  and  of  science, 
heaping  up  ruin  and  death?  Let  him  then  assume  the 
responsibility  before  the  world  and  before  posterity!" 
And  then  followed  the  celebrated  phrase  with  which  he  has 
been  violently  and  iniquitously  reproached,  and  which 
expressed  the  unanimous  sentiment  of  France  :  "  We  will 
not  concede  one  inch  of  our  territory  nor  a  stone  of  our 
fortifications." 

Bismarck  refused  the  interview  Jules  Favre  asked  of  him 
(September  10),  under  the  pretext  that  the  new  Government 
was  irregular.  The  enemy  was  coming  nearer  and  nearer 
to  Paris.  The  French  city  was  resolved  to  resist  ;  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  oxen  were  being  corralled  in  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne;  poor  people  from  the  suburbs  were  coming  to 

239 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

take  refuge  in  the  city.  On  the  Place  de  la  Concorde,  the 
statue  which  represents  the  city  of  Strasburg  was  covered 
with  flowers  and  flags,  and  seemed  to  incarnate  the  idea  of 
the  Patrie  itself. 

Articles  and  letters  came  to  Arbois  in  that  early  Septem- 
ber, bringing  an  echo  of  the  sorrows  of  Paris.  Pasteur  was 
then  reading  the  works  of  General  Foy,  wherein  he  found 
thoughts  in  accordance  with  his  own,  occasionally  copying 
out  such  passages  as  the  following:  "Right  and  Might 
struggle  for  the  world  ;  Right,  which  constitutes  and  pre- 
serves Society  ;  Might,  which  overcomes  nations  and  bleeds 
them  to  death." 

General  Foy  fought  for  France  during  twenty-five  years, 
and,  writing  in  1820,  recalled  with  a  patriotic  shudder  the 
horrors  of  foreign  invasions.  Long  after  peace  was  signed, 
by  a  chance  meeting  in  a  street  in  Paris,  General  Foy 
found  himself  face  to  face  with  Wellington.  The  sight 
was  so  odious  to  him  that  he  spoke  of  this  meeting  in  the 
Chambre  with  an  accent  of  sorrowful  humiliation  which 
breathed  the  sadness  of  Waterloo  over  the  whole  assembly. 
Pasteur  could  well  understand  the  long  continued  vibration 
of  that  suffering  chord,  he,  who  never  afterwards  could 
speak  without  a  thrill  of  sorrow  of  that  war  which  Ger- 
many, in  defiance  of  humanity,  was  inexcusably  pursuing. 

It  was  the  fourth  time  in  less  than  a  hundred  years  that 
a  Prussian  invasion  overflowed  into  France.  But  instead 
of  42,000  Prussians,  scattered  in  1792  over  the  sacred  soil 
of  the  Patrie — Pasteur  pronounced  the  word  with  the  faith 
and  tenderness  of  a  true  son  of  France — there  were  now 
518,000  men  to  fight  285,000  French. 

The  thought  that  they  had  been  armed  in  secret  for  the 
conquest  of  neighbouring  lands,  the  memory  of  France's 
optimism  until  that  diplomatic  incident,  invented  so  that 

240 


I870-I872 

France  might  stumble  over  it,  and  the  inaction  of  Europe, 
inspired  Pasteur  with  reflections  which  he  confided  to  his 
pupil  Raulin.  "What  folly,  what  blindness,"  he  wrote 
(September  17),  "there  are  in  the  inertia  of  Austria,  Russia, 
England!  What  ignorance  in  our  army  leaders  of  the 
respective  forces  of  the  two  nations  !  We  savants  were 
indeed  right  when  we  deplored  the  poverty  of  the  depart- 
ment of  Public  Instruction  !  The  real  cause  of  our  misfor- 
tunes lies  there.  It  is  not  with  impunity — as  it  will  one  day 
be  recognized,  too  late — that  a  great  nation  is  allowed  to 
lose  its  intellectual  standard.  But,  as  you  say,  if  we  rise 
again  from  those  disasters,  we  shall  again  see  our  statesmen 
lose  themselves  in  endless  discussions  on  forms  of  govern- 
ment and  abstract  political  questions  instead  of  going  to  the 
root  of  the  matter.  We  are  paying  the  penalty  of  fifty  years' 
forgetfulness  of  science,  of  its  conditions  of  development, 
of  its  immense  influence  on  the  destiny  of  a  great  people, 
and  of  all  that  might  have  assisted  the  diffusion  of  light. 
...  I  cannot  go  on,  all  this  hurts  me.  I  try  to  put  away 
all  such  memories,  and  also  the  sight  of  our  terrible  distress, 
in  which  it  seems  that  a  desperate  resistance  is  the  only 
hope  we  have  left.  I  wish  that  France  may  fight  to  her 
last  man,  to  her  last  fortress.  I  wish  that  the  war  may 
be  prolonged  until  the  winter,  when,  the  elements  aid- 
ing us,  all  these  Vandals  may  perish  of  cold  and  dis- 
tress. Every  one  of  my  future  works  will  bear  on  its 
title  page  the  words  :  '  Hatred  to  Prussia.  Revenge  ! 
revenge  !  '  " 

There  is  a  passage  in  the  Psalms  where  the  captives  of 
Israel,  led  to  Babylonian  rivers,  weep  at  the  memory  of 
Jerusalem.  After  swearing  never  to  forget  their  country, 
they  wish  their  enemies  every  misfortune,  and  hurl  this 
last  imprecation  at  Babylon  :    "  Blessed  shall  he  be  that 

VOL.  I  241  R 


THÉ  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

taketh  thy  children  and  throweth  them  against  the  stones."  ^ 
One  of  the  most  Christlike  souls  of  our  times,  Henri  Perrey  ve, 
speaking  of  Poland,  of  vanquished  and  oppressed  nations, 
quoted  this  Psalm  and  exclaimed:  "O  Anger,  man's  Anger, 
how  difficult  it  is  to  drive  thee  out  of  man's  heart  !  and 
how  irresistible  are  the  flames  kindled  by  the  insolence  of 
injustice  !  "  Those  flames  were  kindled  in  the  soul  of 
Pasteur,  full  as  it  was  of  human  tenderness,  and  they  burst 
out  in  that  sobbing  cry  of  despair. 

On  that  17th  of  September  the  day  before  Paris  was 
invested,  Jules  Favre  made  another  attempt  to  obtain  peace. 
He  published  an  account  of  that  interview  which  took  place 
at  the  Château  of  Ferrières,  near  Meaux;  this  printed 
account  reached  every  town  in  France,  and  was  read  with 
grief  and  anger. 

Jules  Favre  had  deluded  himself  into  thinking  that  vic- 
torious Prussia  would  limit  its  demands  to  a  war  indemnity, 
probably  a  formidable  one.  But  Bismarck,  besides  the 
indemnity,  intended  to  take  a  portion  of  French  soil,  and 
claimed  Strasburg  first  of  all.  "  It  is  the  key  of  the  house  ; 
I  must  have  it."  And  with  Strasburg  he  wanted  the  whole 
Department  of  the  Haut-Rhin,  that  of  the  Bas-Rhin,  Metz, 
and  a  part  of  the  Department  of  Moselle.  Jules  Favre, 
characteristically  French,  exhausted  his  eloquence  in  putting 
sentiment  into  politics,  spoke  of  European  rights,  of  the 
right  of  the  people  to  dispose  of  themselves,  tried  to  bring 
out  the  fact  that  a  brutal  annexation  was  in  direct  opposi- 
tion to  the  progress  of  civilization.  "  I  know  very  well," 
said  Bismarck,  "  that  they  (meaning  the  Alsatians  and 
Lorrainers)  do  not  want  us;  they  will  give  us  a  deal  of 
trouble,  but  we  must  annex  them."    In  the  event  of  a  future 

*  Ps.  cxxxvii.  9. 
242 


I870-I872 

war  Prussia  was  to  have  the  advantage.  All  this  was  said 
with  an  authoritative  courtesy,  an  insolent  tranquillity, 
through  which  contempt  for  men  was  visible,  evidently  the 
best  means  of  governing  them  in  Bismarck's  eyes.  As  Jules 
Favre  was  pleading  the  cause  of  heroic  Strasburg,  whose 
long  resistance  was  the  admiration  of  Paris,  "Strasburg 
will  now  fall  into  our  hands,"  said  Bismarck  coldly  ;  "  it  is 
but  a  question  for  engineers;  therefore  I  request  that  the 
garrison  should  surrender  as  prisoners  of  war." 

Jules  Favre  "leapt  in  his  grief" — the  words  are  his — 
but  King  Wilhelm  exacted  this  condition.  Jules  Favre, 
almost  breaking  down,  turning  away  to  hide  the  tears  that 
welled  into  his  eyes,  ended  the  interview  with  these  words  : 
"It  is  an  indefinite  struggle  between  two  nations  who 
should  go  hand  in  hand." 

Traces  of  this  patriotic  anguish  are  to  be  found  in  one  of 
Pasteur's  notebooks,  as  well  as  a  circular  addressed  by 
Jules  Favre  to  the  diplomatic  representatives  in  answer  to 
certain  points  disputed  by  Bismarck.  Pasteur  admiringly 
took  note  of  the  following  passage:  "I  know  not  what 
destinies  Fate  has  in  store  for  us.  But  I  do  feel  most  deeply 
that  if  I  had  to  choose  between  the  present  situation  of 
France  or  that  of  Prussia,  I  should  decide  for  the  former. 
Better  far  our  sufferings,  our  perils,  our  sacrifices,  than  the 
cruel  and  inflexible  ambition  of  our  foe." 

"  We  must  preserve  hope  until  the  end,"  wrote  Pasteur 
after  reading  the  above,  "  say  nothing  to  discourage  each 
other,  and  wish  ardently  for  a  prolonged  struggle.  Let  us 
think  of  hopeful  things;  Bazaine  may  save  us."  .  .  .  How 
many  French  hearts  were  sharing  that  hope  at  the  very 
time  when  Bazaine  was  preparing  to  betray  Metz,  his  troops 
and  his  flag! 

"Should  we  not  cry:  'Happy  are  the  dead!'"  wrote 

243 


THE  LIFE   OF  PASTEUR 

Pasteur  a  few  days  after  the  news  burst  upon  France  of 
that  army  lost  without  being  allowed  to  fight,  of  that  city 
of  Metz,  the  strongest  in  France,  surrendered  without  a 
struggle  ! 

Through  all  Pasteur's  anxieties  about  the  war,  certain 
observations,  certain  projected  experiments  resounded  in 
his  mind  like  the  hours  that  a  clock  strikes,  unheeded  but 
not  unheard,  in  a  house  visited  by  death.  He  could  not  put 
them  away  from  him,  they  were  part  of  his  very  life. 

Any  sort  of  laboratory  work  was  difficult  for  him  in  the 
tanner's  house,  which  had  remained  the  joint  property  of 
himself  and  his  sister.  His  brother-in-law  had  continued 
Joseph  Pasteur's  trade.  Pasteur  applied  his  spirit  of  obser- 
vation to  everything  around  him,  and  took  the  opportunity 
of  studying  the  fermentation  of  tan.  He  would  ask  endless 
questions,  trying  to  discover  the  scientific  reason  of  every 
process  and  every  routine.  Whilst  his  sister  was  making 
bread  he  would  study  the  raising  of  the  crust,  the  influence 
of  air  in  the  kneading  of  the  dough,  and  his  imagination 
rising  as  usual  from  a  minor  point  to  the  greatest  prob- 
lems, he  began  to  seek  for  a  means  of  increasing  the 
nutritive  powers  of  bread,  and  consequently  of  lowering 
its  price. 

The  Salut  Public  of  December  20  contained  a  notice  on 
that  very  subject,  which  Pasteur  transcribed.  The  Central 
Commission  of  Hygiene  which  included  among  its  mem- 
bers Sainte  Claire  Deville,  Wurtz,  Bouchardat  and  Trélat, 
had  tried,  when  dealing  with  this  question  of  bread  (a  vital 
one  during  the  siege),  to  prove  to  the  Parisians  that  bread 
is  the  more  wholesome  for  containing  a  little  bran.  "  With 
what  emotion,"  wrote  Pasteur,  "I  have  just  read  all  those 
names  dear  to  science,  greater  now  before  their  fellow- 
citizens  and  before  posterity.     Why  could  I  not  share  their 

244 


I 870-1872 

sufferings  and  then  dangers  !"  He  would  have  added  "  and 
their  work  "  if  some  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences  reports 
had  reached  him. 

The  history  of  the  Academy  during  the  war  is  worthy  of 
brief  mention.  Moreover  it  was  too  deeply  interesting  to 
Pasteur,  too  constantly  in  his  thoughts,  not  to  be  considered 
as  forming  part  of  his  biography. 

During  the  first  period,  the  Academy,  imagining,  like  the 
rest  of  France,  that  there  was  no  doubt  of  a  favourable 
issue  of  the  war,  continued  its  purely  scientific  task.  When 
the  first  defeats  were  announced,  the  habitual  communica- 
tions ceased,  and  the  Academy,  unable  to  think  of  anything 
but  the  war,  held  sittings  of  three-quarters  of  an  hour  or 
even  less. 

One  of  the  correspondents  of  the  Institute,  the  surgeon 
Sédillot,  who  was  in  Alsace  at  the  head  of  an  ambulance 
corps,  and  who  himself  performed  as  many  as  fifteen 
amputations  in  one  day,  addressed  two  noteworthy  letters 
to  the  President  of  the  Academy.  Those  letters  mark  a 
date  in  the  history  of  surgery,  and  show  how  restricted 
was  then  in  France  the  share  of  some  of  Pasteur's  ideas  at 
the  very  time  when  in  other  countries  they  were  adopted 
and  followed.  Lister,  the  celebrated  English  surgeon, 
having,  he  said,  meditated  on  Pasteur's  theory  of  germs, 
and  proclaimed  himself  his  follower,  convinced  that  com- 
plications and  infection  of  wounds  were  caused  by  their 
giving  access  to  living  organisms  and  infectious  germs, 
elements  of  trouble,  often  of  death,  had  already  in  1867 
inaugurated  a  method  of  treatment.  He  attempted  the 
destruction  of  germs  floating  in  air  by  means  of  a  vaporizer 
filled  with  a  carbolic  solution,  then  isolated  and  preserved 
the  wound  from  the  contact  of  the  air.  Sponges,  drainage 
tubes,  etc.,  were  subjected  to  minute  precautions  ;  in  one 

245 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

word,  he  created  antisepsis.  Four  months  before  the  war 
he  had  propounded  the  principles  which  should  guide 
surgeons,  but  it  occurred  to  no  one  in  France,  in  the  first 
battles,  to  apply  the  new  method.  "  The  horrible  mortal- 
ity amongst  the  wounded  in  battle,"  writes  Sédillot,  "  calls 
for  the  attention  of  all  the  friends  of  science  and  humanity. 
The  surgeon's  art,  hesitating  and  disconcerted,  pursues  a 
doctrine  whose  rules  seem  to  flee  before  research.  .  .  . 
Places  where  there  are  wounded  are  recognizable  by  the 
fetor  of  suppuration  and  gangrene." 

Hundreds  and  thousands  of  wounded,  their  faces  pale,  but 
full  of  hope  and  desire  to  live,  succumbed  between  the  eighth 
and  tenth  day  to  gangrene  and  erysipelas.  Those  failures 
of  the  surgery  of  the  past  are  plain  to  us  now  that  the 
doctrine  of  germs  has  explained  everything  ;  but,  at  that 
time,  such  an  avowal  of  impotence  before  the  mysterious 
contagiuin  sui  ge7teris,  which,  the  doctors  averred,  eluded  all 
research,  and  such  awful  statistics  of  mortality  embittered 
the  anguish  of  defeat. 

The  Academy  then  attempted  to  take  a  share  in  the 
national  co-operation  by  making  a  special  study  of  any 
subject  which  interested  the  public  health  and  defence.  A 
sitting  on  methods  of  steering  balloons  was  succeeded  by 
another  on  various  means  of  preserving  meat  during  the 
siege.  Then  came  an  anxious  inquiry  into  modes  of  alimen- 
tation of  infants.  At  the  end  of  October  there  were  but 
20,000  litres  of  milk  per  day  to  be  procured  in  the  whole  of 
Paris,  and  the  healthy  were  implored  to  abstain  from  it. 
It  was  a  question  of  life  and  death  for  young  children,  and 
already  many  little  coffins  were  daily  to  be  seen  on  the 
road  to  the  cemetery. 

Thus  visions  of  death  amongst  soldiers  in  their  prime  and 
children  in  their  infancy  hung  over  the  Academy  meeting 

246 


I 870-1872 

hall.  It  was  at  one  of  those  mournful  sittings,  on  a  dark 
autumn  afternoon,  that  Chevreul,  an  octogenarian  member 
of  the  Institute,  who,  like  Pasteur,  had  believed  in  civiliza- 
tion and  in  the  binding  together  of  nations  through  science, 
art  and  letters,  looking  at  the  sacks  of  earth  piled  outside 
the  windows  to  save  the  library  from  the  bursting  shells, 
exclaimed  in  loud  desolate  tones — 

"  And  yet  we  are  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  a  few 
months  ago  the  French  did  not  even  think  of  a  war  which 
has  put  their  capital  into  a  state  of  siege  and  traced  around 
its  walls  a  desert  zone  where  he  who  sowed  does  not  reap  ! 
And  there  are  public  universities  where  they  teach  the 
Beautiful,  the  True  and  the  Right." 

"Might  goes  before  Right,"  Bismarck  said.  A  German 
journalist  invented  another  phrase  which  went  the  round  of 
Europe  :  "  the  psychological  moment  for  bombardment." 
On  January  5,  one  of  the  first  Prussian  shells  sank  into  the 
garden  of  the  Ecole  Normale;  another  burst  in  the  very 
ambulance  of  the  Ecole.  Bertin,  the  sub-director,  rushed 
through  the  suffocating  smoke  and  ascertained  that  none  of 
the  patients  was  hurt  ;  he  found  the  breech  between  two 
beds.  The  miserable  patients  dragged  themselves  down- 
stairs to  the  lecture  rooms  on  the  ground  floor,  not  a  much 
safer  refuge. 

From  the  heights  of  Châtillon  the  enemy's  batteries  were 
bombarding  all  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine,  the  Prussians, 
regardless  of  the  white  flags  bearing  the  red  cross  of 
Geneva,  were  aiming  at  the  Val-de-Grâce  and  the  Panthéon. 
"  Where  is  the  Germany  of  our  dreams  ?  "  wrote  Paul  de  St. 
Victor  on  January  9,  "  the  Germany  of  the  poets  ?  Be- 
tween her  and  France  an  abyss  of  hatred  has  opened,  a 
Rhine  of  blood  and  tears  that  no  peace  can  ever  bridge 
over." 

247 


THE   LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

On  that  same  date,  Chevreul  read  the  following  declara- 
tion to  the  Academy  of  Science — 

The  Garden  of  Medicinal  Plants,  founded  in  Paris 
by  an  edict  of  King  Louis  XIII, 
dated  January,  1826, 
Converted  into  the  Museum  of  Natural  History 
by  a  decree  of  the  Convention  on  June  10,  1793, 
was  Bombarded, 
under  the  reign  of  Wilhelm  I  King  of 
Prussia,  Count  von  Bismarck,  Chancellor, 
by  the  Prussian  army,  during  the  night 
of  January  8-9,  1871. 
It  had  until  then  been  respected  b}^  all  parties 
and  all  powers,  national  or 
foreign. 
Pasteur,  on  reading  this  protest,  regretted  more  than  ever 
that  he  had  not  been  there  to  sign  it.     It  then  occurred  to 
him  that  he  too  might  give  vent  to  the  proud  plaint  of  the 
vanquished  from  his  little  house  at  Arbois.     He  remem- 
bered with  a  sudden  bitterness  the  diploma  he  had  received 
from  the  Universitj^  of  Bonn.    Many  j^ears  had  passed  since 
the  time  in  the  First  Empire  when  one  of  the  no  French 
Departments  had  been  that  of  Rhine   and  Moselle,  with 
Coblentz  as  its  préfecture  and  Bonn  and  Zimmern  as  sous- 
pré  fecttir  es.    When,  in  18 15,  Prussia's  iron  hand  seized  again 
those  Rhenish  provinces  which  had  become  so  French  at 
heart,  the  Prussian  king  and  his  ministers  hit  upon  the 
highly  politic  idea  of  founding  a  University  on  the  pictur- 
esque banks  of  the  Rhine,  thus  morally  conquering  the  people 
after  reducing  them  by  force.     That  University  had  been 
a  great  success  and  had  become  most  prosperous.    The 
Strasburg  Faculty  under  the  Second  Empire,  with  its  few 
professors  and  its  general  penury,  seemed  very  poor  cora- 

248 


I870-I872 

pared  to  the  Bonn  University,  with  its  fifty- three  professors 
and  its  vast  laboratories  of  chemistry,  physics  and  medicine, 
and  even  a  museum  of  antiquities.  Pasteur  and  Duruy  had 
often  exchanged  remarks  on  that  subject.  But  that  rivalry 
between  the  two  Faculties  was  of  a  noble  nature,  ani- 
mated as  it  was  by  the  great  feeling  that  science  is  superior 
to  national  distinctions.  King  Wilhelm  had  once  said, 
"  Prussia's  conquests  must  be  of  the  moral  kind,"  and 
Pasteur  had  not  thought  of  any  other  conquests. 

When  in  1868  the  University  of  Bonn  conferred  upon  him 
the  diploma  of  Doctor  of  Medicine,  saying  that  "by  his  very 
penetrating  experiments,  he  had  much  contributed  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  generation  of  micro- 
organisms, and  had  happily  advanced  the  progress  of  the 
science  of  fermentations,"  he  had  been  much  pleased  at  this 
acknowledgement  of  the  future  opened  to  medical  studies 
by  his  work,  and  he  was  proud  to  show  the  Degree  he  had 
received. 

"Now,"  he  wrote  (January  18,  1871),  to  the  Head  of  the 
Faculty  of  Medicine,  after  recalling  his  former  sentiments, 
"  now  the  sight  of  that  parchment  is  odious  to  me,  and  I  feel 
offended  at  seeing  my  name,  with  the  qualification  of  Viruin 
clarissimmn  that  you  have  given  it,  placed  under  a  name 
which  is  henceforth  an  object  of  execration  to  my  country, 
that  of  Rex  Gulielmus. 

"  While  highly  asseverating  my  profound  respect  for  you. 
Sir,  and  for  the  celebrated  professors  who  have  affixed  their 
signatures  to  the  decision  of  the  members  of  your  Order,  I 
am  called  upon  by  my  conscience  to  ask  you  to  efface  my 
name  from  the  archives  of  57-our  Faculty,  and  to  take  back 
that  diploma,  as  a  sign  of  the  indignation  inspired  in  a 
French  scientist  by  the  barbarity  and  hypocrisy  of  him 
who,  in  order  to  satisfy  his  criminal  pride,  persists  in  the 

249 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

massacre  of  two  great  nations."  Pasteur's  protest  ended 
with  these  words — 

"  Written  at  Arbois  (Jura)  on  January  i8,  1871,  after 
reading  the  mark  of  infamy  inscribed  on  the  forehead  of 
your  King  by  the  illustrious  director  of  the  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  M.  Chevreul." 

"  This  letter  will  not  have  much  weight  with  a  people 
whose  principles  differ  so  totally  from  those  that  inspire 
us,"  said  Pasteur,  "  but  it  will  at  least  echo  the  indignation 
of  French  scientists." 

He  made  a  collection  of  stories,  of  episodes,  and  letters, 
which  fell  in  his  way  ;  amongst  other  things  we  find  an 
open  letter  from  General  Chanzy  to  the  commandant  of  the 
Prussian  troops  at  Vendôme,  denouncing  the  insults,  out- 
rages, and  inexcusable  violence  of  the  Prussians  towards 
the  inhabitants  of  St.  Calais,  who  had  shown  great  kindness 
to  the  enemy's  sick  and  wounded. 

"  You  respond  by  insolence,  destruction  and  pillage  to  the 
generosity  with  which  we  treat  your  prisoners  and  wounded. 
I  indignantly  protest,  in  the  name  of  humanity  and  of  the 
rights  of  men,  which  you  trample  under  foot." 

Pasteur  also  gathered  up  tales  of  bravery,  of  heroism, 
and  of  resignation — that  form  of  heroism  so  often  illustrated 
by  women — during  the  terrible  siege  of  Paris.  And,  from 
all  those  things,  arose  the  psychology  of  war  in  its  two 
aspects  :  in  the  invading  army  a  spirit  of  conquest  carried 
to  oppression,  and  even  apart  from  the  thrilling  moments 
of  battle,  giving  to  hatred  and  cruelty  a  cold-blooded 
sanction  of  discipline;  in  the  vanquished  nation,  an  irre- 
pressible revolt,  an  intoxication  of  sacrifice.  Those  who 
have  not  seen  war  do  not  know  what  love  of  the  mother 
country  means. 

France  was  the  more  loved  that  she  was  more  oppressed  ; 

250 


I870-I872 

she  inspired  her  true  sons  with  an  infinite  tenderness. 
Sully-Prudhomme,  the  poet  of  pensive  youth,  renouncing 
his  love  for  Humanity  in  general,  promised  himself  that  he 
would  henceforth  devote  his  life  to  the  exclusive  love  of 
France.  A  greater  poet  than  he,  Victor  Hugo,  wrote  at 
that  time  the  first  part  of  his  Année  Terrible^  with  its  mingled 
devotion  and  despair. 

The  death  of  Henri  Regnault  was  one  of  the  sad  episodes 
of  the  war.  This  brilliant  young  painter — he  was  only 
twenty-seven  years  of  age — enlisted  as  b.  garde  nationale^ 
though  exempt  by  law  from  any  military  service  through 
being  a  laureate  of  the  prix  de  Rome}  He  did  his  duty 
valiantly,  and  on  January  19,  at  the  last  sortie  attempted 
by  the  Parisians,  at  Buzenval,  the  last  Prussian  shot  struck 
him  in  the  forehead.  The  Académie  des  Sciences,  at  its 
sitting  of  January  23,  rendered  homage  to  him  whose  coffin 
enclosed  such  dazzling  prospects  and  some  of  the  glory  of 
France.  The  very  heart  of  Paris  was  touched,  and  a 
great  sadness  was  felt  at  the  funeral  procession  of  the  great 
artist  who  seemed  an  ideal  type  of  all  the  youth  and  talent 
so  heroically  sacrificed — and  all  in  vain — for  the  surrender 
of  Paris  had  just  been  officially  announced. 

Regnault's  father,  the  celebrated  physicist,  a  member  of 
the  Institute,  was  at  Geneva  when  he  received  this  terrible 
blow.  Another  grief — not  however  comparable  to  the  de- 
spair of  a  bereaved  parent — befell  him — an  instance  of  the 
odious  side  of  war,  not  in  its  horrors,  its  pools  of  blood  and 
burnt  dwellings,  but  in  its  premeditated  cruelty.  Regnault 
had  left  his  laboratory  utensils  in  his  rooms  at  the  Sèvres 
porcelain   manufactory,  of  which  he  was  the  manager. 

^  Prix  de  Rofne.  A  competition  takes  place  every  year  amongst  the 
students  of  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  for  this  prize  ;  the  successful  com- 
petitor is  sent  to  Rome  for  a  year  at  the  expense  of  the  Ecole.    [Trans.] 

25T 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Everything  was  apparently  left  in  the  same  place,  not  a 
window  was  broken,  no  locks  forced  ;  but  a  Prussian,  evi- 
dently an  expert,  had  been  there.  "  Nothing  seemed  changed," 
writes  J.  B,  Dumas,  "  in  that  abode  of  science,  and  yet 
everything  was  destroyed  ;  the  glass  tubes  of  barometers, 
thermometers,  etc.,  were  broken;  scales  and  other  similar 
instruments  had  been  carefully  knocked  out  of  shape  with 
a  hammer."  In  a  corner  was  a  heap  of  ashes  ;  they  were 
the  registers,  notes,  manuscripts,  all  Regnault's  work  of  the 
last  ten  years.  "  Such  cruelty,"  exclaimed  J.  B.  Dumas, 
"  is  unexampled  in  history.  The  Roman  soldier  who 
butchered  Archimedes  in  the  heat  of  the  onslaught  may  be 
excused — he  did  not  know  him  ;  but  with  what  sacrilegious 
meanness  could  such  a  work  of  destruction  as  this  be 
accomplished  !  !  !  " 

On  the  very  day  when  the  Académie  des  Sciences  was 
condoling  with  Henri  Regnault's  sorrowing  father,  Pasteur, 
anxious  at  having  had  no  news  of  his  son,  who  had  been 
fighting  before  Héricourt,  determined  to  go  and  look  for 
him  in  the  ranks  of  the  Eastern  Army  Corps.  By  Poligny 
and  Lons-le-Saulnier,  the  roads  were  full  of  stragglers  from 
the  various  regiments  left  several  days  behind,  their  route 
completely  lost,  who  begged  for  bread  as  they  marched, 
barely  covered  by  the  tattered  remnants  of  their  uniforms. 
The  main  body  of  the  army  was  on  the  way  to  Besançon, 
a  sad  procession  of  French  soldiers,  hanging  their  heads 
under  the  cold  grey  sky  and  tramping  painfully  in  the 
snow. 

Bourbaki,  the  general-in-chief,  a  hero  of  African  battle- 
fields, was  becoming  more  and  more  unnerved  by  the 
combinations  of  this  war.  Whilst  the  Minister,  in  a  dis- 
patch from  Bordeaux,  had  ordered  him  to  move  back  towards 
Dole,  to  prevent  the  taking  of  Dijon,  then  to  hurry  to  Nevers 

252 


I870-I872 

or  Joigny,  where  20,000  men  would  be  ready  to  be  incor- 
porated, Bourbaki,  overwhelmed  by  the  lamentable  spec- 
tacle under  his  eyes,  could  see  no  recourse  for  his  corps  but 
a  last  line  of  retreat,  Pontarlier. 

It  was  among  that  stream  of  soldiers  that  Pasteur  at- 
tempted to  find  his  son.  His  old  friend  and  neighbour, 
Jules  Vercel,  saw  him  start,  accompanied  by  his  wife  and 
daughter,  on  Tuesday,  January  24,  in  a  half  broken  down 
old  carriage,  the  last  that  was  left  in  the  town.  After  jour- 
neying for  some  hours  in  the  snow,  the  sad  travellers  spent 
the  night  in  a  little  wayside  inn  near  Montrond  ;  the  old 
carriage  with  its  freight  of  travelling  boxes  stood  on  the 
roadside  like  a  gipsy's  caravan.  The  next  morning  they 
went  on  through  a  pine  forest  where  the  deep  silence  was 
unbroken  save  by  the  falling  masses  of  snow  from  the 
spreading  branches.  They  slept  at  Censeau,  the  next  day 
at  Chaffois,  and  it  was  only  on  the  Friday  that  they  reached 
Pontarlier,  by  roads  made  almost  impracticable  by  the 
snow,  the  carriage  now  a  mere  wreck. 

The  town  was  full  of  soldiers,  some  crouching  round 
fires  in  the  street,  others  stepping  across  their  dead  horses 
and  begging  for  a  little  straw  to  lie  on.  Many  had  taken 
refuge  in  the  church  and  were  lying  on  the  steps  of  the 
altar  ;  a  few  were  attempting  to  bandage  their  frozen  feet, 
threatened  with  gangrene. 

Suddenly  the  news  spread  that  the  general-in-chief,  Bour- 
baki, had  shot  himself  through  the  brain.  This  did  not 
excite  much  surprise.  He  had  telegraphed  two  days  before 
to  the  minister  of  war  :  "  You  cannot  have  an  idea  of  the 
sufferings  that  the  army  has  endured  since  the  beginning 
of  December.  It  is  martyrdom  to  be  in  command  at  such 
a  time,"  he  added  despairingly. 

"  The  retreat  from  Moscow  cannot  have  been  worse  than 

253 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

this,"  said  Pasteur  to  a  staff  officer,  Commandant  Bour- 
boulon,  a  nephew  of  Sainte  Claire  Deville,  whom  he  met  in 
the  midst  of  those  horrors  and  who  could  give  him  no 
information  as  to  his  son's  battalion  of  Chasseurs.  "All 
that  I  can  tell  you,"  said  a  soldier  anxiously  questioned 
by  Mme.  Pasteur,  "  is  that  out  of  the  1,200  men  of  that 
battalion  there  are  but  300  left."  As  she  was  questioning 
another,  a  soldier  who  was  passing  stopped:  "Sergeant 
Pasteur?  Yes,  he  is  alive;  I  slept  by  him  last  night  at 
Chaffois.  He  has  remained  behind;  he  is  ill.  You  might 
meet  him  on  the  road  towards  Chaffois." 

The  Pasteurs  started  again  on  the  road  followed  the  day 
before.  They  had  barely  passed  the  Pontarlier  gate  when  a 
rough  cart  came  by.  A  soldier  muffled  in  his  great  coat, 
his  hands  resting  on  the  edge  of  the  cart,  started  with 
surprise.  He  hurried  down,  and  the  family  embraced 
without  a  word,  so  great  was  their  emotion. 

The  capitulation  of  starving  Paris  and  the  proposed 
armistice  are  historical  events  still  present  in  the  memory 
of  men  who  were  then  beginning  to  learn  the  meaning 
of  defeat.  The  armistice,  which  Jules  Favre  thought  would 
be  applied  without  restriction  to  all  the  army  corps,  was 
interpreted  by  Bismarck  in  a  peculiar  way.  He  and 
Jules  Favre  between  them  had  drawn  up  a  protocol  in 
general  terms  ;  it  had  been  understood  in  those  preliminary 
confabulations  that,  before  drawing  up  the  limits  of  the 
neutral  zone  applicable  to  the  Eastern  Army  Corps,  some 
missing  information  would  be  awaited,  the  respective  posi- 
tions of  the  belligerents  being  unknown.  The  information 
did  not  come,  and  Jules  Favre  in  his  imprudent  trustfulness 
supposed  that  the  delimitation  would  be  done  on  the  spot  by 
the  officers  in  command.  When  he  heard  that  the  Prussian 
troops  were  continuing  their  march  eastwards,  he  com- 

254 


I870-I872 

plained  to  Bismarck,  who  answered  that  "the  incident 
cannot  have  compromised  the  Eastern  Army  Corps,  as  it 
already  was  completely  routed  when  the  armistice  was 
signed."  This  calculated  reserve  on  Bismarck's  part  was 
eminently  characteristic  of  his  moral  physiognomy,  and  this 
encounter  between  the  two  Ministers  proved  once  again  the 
inferiority — when  great  interests  are  at  stake — of  emotional 
men  to  hard-hearted  business  men  ;  however  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  Bismarck's  statement  was  founded  on 
fact.  The  Eastern  Corps  could  have  fought  no  more  ;  its 
way  was  blocked.  Without  food,  without  clothes,  in  many 
cases  without  arms,  nothing  remained  to  the  unfortunate 
soldiers  but  the  refuge  offered  by  Switzerland. 

Pasteur  went  to  Geneva  with  his  son,  who,  after  recover- 
ing from    the  illness  caused    by   fatigue  and   privation, 
succeeded  in  getting  back  to  France  to  rejoin  his  regiment 
in  the  early  days  of  February.    Pasteur  then  went  on  to 
Lyons  and  stayed  there  with  his  brother-in-law,  M.  Loir, 
Dean  of  the  Lyons  Faculty  of  Science.    He  intended  to  go 
back  to  Paris,  but  a  letter  from  Bertin  dated  February  18 
advised  him  to  wait.      "  This  is  the  present  state  of  the 
Ecole  :  south  wing  :  pulled  down  ;  will  be  built  up  again  ; 
workmen  expected.      Third  year  dormitory  :    ambulance 
occupied  by  eight  students.    Science  dormitory  and  drawing 
classroom  :  ambulance  again,  forty  patients.     Ground  floor 
classroom:   120  artillery-men.      Pasteur  laboratory:    210 
gardes  nationaux,  refugees  from  Issy.      You  had  better 
wait."    Bertin  added,  with  his  indomitable  good  humour, 
speaking  of  the  bombardment  :  "  The  first  day  I  did  not  go 
out,  but  I  took  my  bearings  and  found  the  formula:   in 
leaving  the  school,  walk  close  along  the  houses  on  my  left  ; 
on  coming  back,  keep  close  to  them  on  my  right;  with 
that  I  went  out  as  usual.     The  population  of  Paris  has 

255 


TÎÎE   LIFE    OF   PASTEUR 

shown  magnificent  resignation  and  patience.  ...  In  order 
to  have  our  revenge,  everything  will  have  to  be  rebuilt 
from  the  top  to  the  bottom,  the  top  especial!}'." 

Pasteur  also  thought  that  reforms  should  begin  from  the 
top.  He  prepared  a  paper  dated  from  L3'ons,  and  entitled 
''  Why  France  found  no  superior  men  in  the  hours  of  peril." 
Amongst  the  mistakes  committed,  one  in  particular,  had 
been  before  his  mind  for  twenty  years,  ever  since  he  left 
the  Ecole  Normale  :  ''  The  forgetfulness,  disdain  even,  that 
France  had  had  for  great  intellectual  men,  especially  in 
the  realm  of  exact  science.''  This  seemed  the  more  sad 
to  him  that  things  had  been  very  different  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Pasteur  enumerated  the  services  ren- 
dered by  science  to  his  threatened  country.  If  in  1792 
France  was  able  to  face  danger  on  all  sides,  it  was  because 
Lavoisier,  Fourcro}',  Guyton  de  ]\lorveau,  Chaptal,  Berthol- 
let,  etc.,  discovered  new  means  of  extracting  saltpetre  and 
manufacturing  gunpowder  ;  because  ISIonge  found  a  method 
of  founding  cannon  with  great  rapidity  ;  and  because  the 
chemist  Clouet  invented  a  quick  system  of  manufacturing 
steel.  Science,  in  the  service  of  patriotism,  made  a  victori- 
ous arm}'  of  a  perturbed  nation.  If  Marat,  with  his  slander- 
ous and  injurious  insinuations,  had  not  turned  from  their 
course  the  feelings  of  the  mob,  Lavoisier  never  would  have 
perished  on  the  scaffold.  The  day  after  his  execution, 
Lagrange  said:  "  One  moment  was  enough  for  his  head  to 
fall,  and  200  years  may  not  suffice  to  produce  such  another." 
Monge  and  BerthoUet,  also  denounced  by  Marat,  nearly 
shared  the  same  fate  :  "In  a  week's  time  we  shall  be 
arrested,  tried,  condemned  and  executed,"  said  BerthoUet 
placidly  to  Monge,  who  answered  with  equal  composure, 
thinking  only  of  the  country's  defence,  "  All  I  know  is 
that  my  gun  factories  are  working  admirably." 

256 


I870-I872 

Bonaparte,  from  the  first,  made  of  science  what  he  would 
have  made  of  everything — a  means  of  reigning.  When  he 
started  for  Egypt,  he  desired  to  have  with  him  a  staff  of 
scientists,  and  Monge  and  Berthollet  undertook  to  organize 
that  distinguished  company.  Later,  when  Bonaparte  be- 
came Napoleon  I,  he  showed,  in  the  intervals  between  his 
wars,  so  much  respect  for  the  place  due  to  science  as  to 
proclaim  the  effacement  of  national  rivalry  when  scientific 
discoveries  were  in  question.  Pasteur,  when  studying  this 
side  of  the  Imperial  character,  found  in  some  pages  by 
Arago  on  Monge  that,  after  Waterloo,  Napoleon,  in  a 
conversation  he  had  with  Monge  at  the  Elysée,  said, 
"  Condemned  now  to  command  armies  no  longer,  I  can 
see  but  Science  with  which  to  occupy  my  mind  and  my 
soul  .  .  ." 

Alluding  to  the  scientific  supremacy  of  France  during 
the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Pasteur  wrote  : 
"  All  the  other  nations  acknowledged  our  superiority, 
though  each  could  take  pride  in  some  great  men  :  Berzelius 
in  Sweden,  Davy  in  England,  Volta  in  Italy,  other  eminent 
men  in  Germany  and  Switzerland  ;  but  in  no  country  were 
they  as  numerous  as  in  France  ..."  He  added  these 
regretful  lines  :  "A  victim  of  her  political  instability, 
France  has  done  nothing  to  keep  up,  to  propagate  and  to 
develop  the  progress  of  science  in  our  country;  she  has 
merely  obeyed  a  given  impulse  ;  she  has  lived  on  her  past, 
thinking  herself  great  by  the  scientific  discoveries  to  which 
she  owed  her  material  prosperity,  but  not  perceiving  that 
she  was  imprudently  allowing  the  sources  of  those  dis- 
coveries to  become  dry,  whilst  neighbouring  nations, 
stimulated  by  her  past  example,  were  diverting  for  their 
own  benefit  the  course  of  those  springs,  rendering  them 
fruitful  by  their  works,  their  efforts  and  their  sacrifices. 

VOL.  I  257  s 


THE  LIFE   OF  PASTEUR 

"Whilst  Germany  was  multiplying  her  universities,  estab- 
lishing between  them  the  most  salutary  emulation,  bestow- 
ing honours  and  consideration  on  the  masters  and  doctors, 
creating  vast  laboratories  amply  supplied  with  the  most 
perfect  instruments,  France,  enervated  by  revolutions,  ever 
vainly  seeking  for  the  best  form  of  government,  was  giving 
but  careless  attention  to  her  establishments  for  higher 
education  .  .  . 

"  The  cultivation  of  science  in  its  highest  expression  is 
perhaps  even  more  necessary  to  the  moral  condition  than 
to  the  material  prosperity  of  a  nation. 

"  Great  discoveries — the  manifestations  of  thought  in  Art, 
in  Science  and  in  Letters,  in  a  word  the  disinterested 
exercise  of  the  mind  in  every  direction  and  the  centres 
of  instruction  from  which  it  radiates,  introduce  into  the 
whole  of  Society  that  philosophical  or  scientific  spirit,  that 
spirit  of  discernment,  which  submits  everything  to  severe 
reasoning,  condemns  ignorance  and  scatters  errors  and 
prejudices.  They  raise  the  intellectual  level  and  the 
moral  sense,  and  through  them  the  Divine  idea  itself  is 
spread  abroad  and  intensified." 

At  the  very  time  when  Pasteur  was  preoccupied  with  the 
desire  of  directing  the  public  mind  towards  the  principles 
of  truth,  justice  and  sovereign  harmony.  Sainte  Claire 
Deville,  speaking  of  the  Academy,  expressed  similar  ideas, 
proclaiming  that  France  had  been  vanquished  by  science 
and  that  it  was  now  time  to  free  scientific  bodies  from  the 
tyranny  of  red  tape.  Why  should  not  the  Academy  be- 
come the  centre  of  all  measures  relating  to  science,  inde- 
pendently of  government  offices  or  officials? 

J.  B.  Dumas  took  part  in  the  discussion  opened  by  Sainte 
Claire  Deville,  and  agreed  with  his  suggestions.  He  might 
have  said  more,  however,  on  a  subject  which  he  often  took 

258 


1870- 1872 

up  in  private  :  the  utility  of  pure  science  in  daily  experi- 
ence. With  his  own  special  gift  of  generalization,  he 
could  have  expounded  the  progress  of  all  kinds  due  to  the 
workers  who,  by  their  perseverance  in  resolving  difficult 
problems,  have  brought  about  so  many  precious  and  un- 
expected results.  Few  men  in  France  realized  at  that  time 
that  laboratories  could  be  the  vestibule  of  farms,  factories, 
etc.;  it  was  indeed  a  noble  task,  that  of  proving  that 
science  was  intended  to  lighten  the  burden  of  humanity, 
not  merely  to  be  applied  to  devastation,  carnage,  and 
hatred. 

Pasteur  was  in  the  midst  of  these  philosophical  reflections 
when  he  received  the  following  answer  from  the  principal 
of  the  Faculty  of  Medicine  of  Bonn  : 

"  Sir,  the  undersigned,  now  Principal  of  the  Faculty  of 
Medicine  of  Bonn,  is  requested  to  answer  the  insult  which 
you  have  dared  to  offer  to  the  German  nation  in  the  sacred 
person  of  its  august  Emperor,  King  Wilhelm  of  Prussia, 
by  sending  you  the  expression  of  its  entire  cont empty — 
Dr.  Maurice  Naumann. 

"PS. — Desiring  to  keep  its  papers  free  from  taint,  the 
Faculty  herewith  returns  your  screed." 

Pasteur's  reply  contained  the  following:  "I  have  the 
honour  of  informing  you,  Mr.  Principal,  that  there  are  times 
when  the  expression  of  contempt  in  a  Prussian  mouth  is 
equivalent  for  a  true  Frenchman  to  that  of  Virum  Claris- 
simum  which  you  once  publicly  conferred  upon  me." 

After  invoking  in  favour  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  Truth 
of  Justice,  and  the  laws  of  humanity,  Pasteur  added  in  a 
postscript — 

"  And  now,  Mr.  Principal,  after  reading  over  both  your 
letter  and  mine,  I  sorrow  in  my  heart  to  think  that  men 
who  like  yourself  and  myself  have  spent  a  lifetime  in  the 

259 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

pursuit  of  truth  and  progress,  should  address  each  other 
in  such  a  fashion,  founded  on  my  part  on  such  actions. 
This  is  but  one  of  the  results  of  the  character  your 
Emperor  has  given  to  this  war.  You  speak  to  me  of  taint. 
Mr.  Principal,  taint  will  rest,  you  may  be  assured,  until 
far-distant  ages,  on  the  memory  of  those  who  began  the 
bombardment  of  Paris  when  capitulation  by  famine  was 
inevitable,  and  who  continued  this  act  of  savagery  after  it 
had  become  evident  to  all  men  that  it  would  not  advance 
by  one  hour  the  surrender  of  the  heroic  city." 

Whilst  Pasteur  thus  felt  those  simple  and  strong  im- 
pressions as  a  soldier  or  the  man  in  the  street  might  do, 
the  creative  power  of  his  nature  was  urging  him  to  great 
and  useful  achievements.  He  wrote  from  Lyons  in  March 
to  M.  Duclaux — 

"  My  head  is  full  of  splendid  projects  ;  the  war  sent  my 
brain  to  grass,  but  I  now  feel  ready  for  further  work. 
Perhaps  I  am  deluding  myself;  anyhow  I  will  try.  .  .  . 
Oh  !  why  am  I  not  rich,  a  millionaire  ?  I  would  say  to  you, 
to  Raulin,  to  Gernez,  to  Van  Tieghem,  etc.,  come,  we  will 
transform  the  world  by  our  discoveries.  How  fortunate  you 
are  to  be  young  and  strong  !  Why  can  I  not  begin  a  new 
life  of  study  and  work  !  Unhappy  France,  beloved  country, 
if  I  could  only  assist  in  raising  thee  from  thy  disasters  !  " 

A  few  days  later,  in  a  letter  to  Raulin,  this  desire  for 
devoted  work  was  again  expressed  almost  feverishly.  He 
could  foresee,  in  the  dim  distance,  secret  affinities  between 
apparently  dissimilar  things.  He  had  at  that  time  returned 
to  the  researches  which  had  absorbed  his  youth  (because 
those  studies  were  less  materially  difficult  to  organize), 
and  he  could  perceive  laws  and  connections  between  the 
facts  he  had  observed  and  those  of  the  existence  of  which 
he  felt  assured. 

260 


i87o-iS'"2 

"  I  have  begun  here  some  experiments  in  crystallization 
which  will  open  a  great  prospect  if  they  should  lead  to 
positive  results.  You  know  that  I  believe  that  there  is  a 
cosmic  dissymmetric  influence  which  presides  constantly 
and  naturally  over  the  molecular  organization  of  principles 
immediately  essential  to  life  ;  and  that,  in  consequence  of 
this,  the  species  of  the  three  kingdoms,  by  their  structure, 
by  their  form,  by  the  disposition  of  their  tissues,  have  a 
definite  relation  to  the  movements  of  the  universe.  For 
many  of  those  species,  if  not  for  all,  the  sun  is  the  pvimum 
movens  of  nutrition;  but  I  believe  in  another  influence 
which  would  affect  the  whole  organization,  for  it  would  be 
the  cause  of  the  molecular  dissymmetry  proper  to  the 
chemical  components  of  life.  I  want  to  be  able  by  ex- 
periment to  grasp  a  few  indications  as  to  the  nature  of  this 
great  cosmic  dissymmetrical  influence.  It  must,  it  may  be 
electricity,  magnetism.  .  .  .  And,  as  one  should  always 
proceed  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  I  am  now  trying 
to  crystallize  double  racemate  of  soda  and  ammonia  under 
the  influence  of  a  spiral  solenoid. 

•'  I  have  various  other  forms  of  experiment  to  attempt. 
If  one  of  them  should  succeed,  we  shall  have  work  for  the 
rest  of  our  lives,  and  in  one  of  the  greatest  subjects  man 
could  approach,  for  I  should  not  despair  of  arriving  by 
this  means  at  a  very  deep,  unexpected  and  extraordinary 
modification  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  species. 

"Good-bye,  my  dear  Raulin.  Let  us  endeavour  to 
distract  our  thoughts  from  human  turpitudes  by  the 
disinterested  search  after  truth." 

In  a  little  notebook  where  he  jotted  down  some  intended 
experiments  we  find  evidence  of  those  glimpses  of  divina- 
tion in  a  few  summary  lines  :  "  Show  that  life  is  in  the 
germ,  that  it  has  been  but  in  a  state  of  transmission  since 

261 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

the  origin  of  creation.  That  the  germ  possesses  possi- 
bilities of  development,  either  of  intelligence  and  will,  or — 
and  in  the  same  way — of  physical  organs.  Compare  these 
possibilities  with  those  possessed  by  the  germ  of  chemical 
species  which  is  in  the  chemical  molecule.  The  possibilities 
of  development  in  the  germ  of  the  chemical  molecule  con- 
sist in  crystallization,  in  its  form,  in  its  physical  and 
chemical  properties.  Those  properties  are  in  power  in  the 
germ  of  the  molecule  in  the  same  way  as  the  organs  and 
tissues  of  animals  and  plants  are  in  their  respective  germs. 
Add:  nothing  is  more  curious  than  to  carr}'  the  com- 
parison of  living  species  with  mineral  species  into  the 
study  of  the  wounds  of  either,  and  of  their  healing  by 
means  of  nutrition — a  nutrition  coming  from  within  in 
living  beings,  and  from  without  through  the  medium  of 
crystallization  in  the  others.     Here  detail  facts.  .  .  ." 

In  that  same  notebook,  Pasteur,  after  writing  down  the 
following  heading,  "Letter  to  prepare  on  the  species  in 
connection  with  molecular  diss3-mmetry,"  added,  "I  could 
write  that  letter  to  Bernard.  I  should  say  that  being 
deprived  of  a  laboratory  by  the  present  state  of  France,  I 
am  going  to  give  him  the  preconceived  ideas  that  I  shall  try 
to  experiment  upon  when  better  times  come.  There  is  no 
peril  in  expressing  ideas  a  priori^  when  they  are  taken  as 
such,  and  can  be  graduall}^  modified,  perhaps  even  com- 
pletely transformed,  according  to  the  result  of  the  observa- 
tion of  facts." 

He  once  compared  those  preconceived  ideas  with  search- 
lights guiding  the  experimentalist,  saying  that  they  only 
became  dangerous  when  they  became  fixed  ideas. 

Civil  war  had  now  come,  showing,  as  Renan  said,  "  a  sore 
under  the  sore,  an  abyss  below  the  abyss."  What  were  the 
hopes  and  projects  of  Pasteur  and  of  Sainte  Claire  Deville 

262 


I870-I872 

now  that  the  very  existence  of  the  divided  country  was 
jeopardized  under  the  eyes  of  the  Prussians  ?    The  world  of 
letters  and  of  science,  helpless  amidst  such  disorders,  had 
dispersed  ;   Saint  Claire  Deville  was  at  Gex,  Dumas  at 
Geneva.     Some  were  wondering  whether  lectures  could  not 
be  organized  in  Switzerland  and  in  Belgium  as  they  had 
been  under  the  Empire,  thus  spreading  abroad  the  influence 
of  French  thought.    Examples  might  be  quoted  of  men  who 
had  served  the  glory  of  their  country  in  other  lands,  such 
as  Descartes,  who  took  refuge  in  Holland  in  order  to  con- 
tinue his  philosophic  meditations.    Pasteur  might  have  been 
tempted  to  do  likewise.     Already,  before  the  end  of  the  war, 
an  Italian  professor  of  chemistry,  Signor  Chiozza,  who  had 
applied  Pasteur's  methods  to  silkworms  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Villa  Vicentina,  got  the  ItaUan  Government  to  offer 
him  a  laboratory  and  the  direction  of  a  silkworm  establish- 
ment.    Pasteur    refused,  and  a  deputy    of   Pisa,  Signor 
Toscanelli,  hearing  of  this,  obtained  for  Pasteur  the  offer 
of  what  was  better  still — a  professor's  chair|  of  Chemistry 
applied  to  Agriculture  at  Pisa;  this  would  give  every  facility 
for  work  and  all  laboratory  resources.     "Pisa,"   Signor 
Chiozza  said,  "  is  a  quiet  town,  a  sort  of  Latin  quarter  in 
the  middle  of  the  country,  where  professors  and  students 
form  the  greater  part  of  the  population.    I  think  you  would 
be  received  with  the  greatest  cordiality  and  quite  exceptional 
consideration    ...    I  fear  that  black  days  of  prolonged 
agitation  are  in  store  for  France." 

Pasteur's  health  and  work  were  indeed  valuable  to  the 
whole  world,  and  Signor  Chiozza's  proposition  seemed 
simple  and  rational.  Pasteiir  was  much  divided  in  his 
mind:  his  first  impulse  was  to  renew  his  refusal.  He 
thought  but  of  his  vanquished  country,  and  did  not  wish  to 
forsake  it.    But  was  it  to  his  country's  real  interests  that 

263 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

he  should  remain  a  helpless  spectator  of  so  many  disasters  ? 
Was  it  not  better  to  carry  French  teaching  abroad,  to  try 
and  provoke  in  young  Italian  students  enthusiasm  for 
French  scientists,  French  achievements  ?  He  might  still 
serve  his  beloved  country  in  that  quiet  retreat,  amidst  all 
those  facilities  for  continuous  work.  He  thought  of  writing 
to  Raulin,  who  had  relations  in  Italy,  and  who  might  follow 
his  master.  Finally,  he  was  offered  very  great  personal 
advantages,  a  high  salary — and  this  determined  his  refusal, 
for,  as  he  wrote  to  Signor  Chiozza,  "  I  should  feel  that  I 
deserved  a  deserter's  penalty  if  I  sought,  away  from  my 
country  in  distress,  a  material  situation  better  than  it  can 
offer  me." 

"  Nevertheless  allow  me  to  tell  you.  Sir  (he  wrote  to 
Signor  Toscanelli,  refusing  his  offer),  in  all  sincerity,  that 
the  memory  of  your  offer  will  remain  in  the  annals  of  my 
family  as  a  title  of  nobility,  as  a  proof  of  Italy's  sympathy 
for  France,  as  a  token  of  the  esteem  accorded  to  my  work. 
And  as  far  as  you,  M.  le  Député,  are  concerned  it  will 
remain  in  my  eyes  a  brilliant  proof  of  the  way  in  which 
public  men  in  Italy  regard  science  and  its  grandeur." 

And  now  what  was  Pasteur  to  do — he  who  could  not  live 
away  from  a  laboratory?  In  April,  1 871,  he  could  neither 
go  back  to  Paris  and  the  Commune  nor  to  Arbois,  now 
transformed  into  a  Prussian  dépôt.  It  seemed,  indeed,  from 
the  letters  he  received  that  his  fellow  citizens  were  now 
destined  but  to  feed  and  serve  a  victorious  foe,  whose 
exactions  were  all  the  more  rigorous  that  the  invasion  of 
the  town  on  January  25  had  been  preceded  by  an  attempt 
at  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants.  On  that  morn- 
ing, a  few  French  soldiers  who  were  seeking  their  regiments 
and  a  handful  of  frayics  tireurs  had  posted  themselves 
among  the  vines.     About  ten  o'clock  a  first  shot  sounded 

264 


I870-I872 

in  the  distance  ;  in  a  turn  of  the  sinuous  Besançon  road, 
when  the  Prussian  vanguard  had  appeared,  a  Zouave — who 
the  day  before  was  begging  from  door  to  door,  shaking  with 
ague,  and  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  village  of  Montigny, 
two  kilometres  from  Arbois — had  in  despair  fired  his  last 
cartridge.  A  squad  of  Prussians  left  the  road  and 
rushed  towards  the  smoke  of  the  gun.  The  soldier 
was  seized,  shot  down  on  the  spot,  and  mutilated  with 
bayonets.  Whilst  the  main  column  continued  their  ad- 
vance towards  the  town,  detachments  explored  the  vines 
on  either  side  of  the  road,  shooting  here  and  there.  An  old 
man  who,  with  a  courageous  indifference,  was  working  in 
his  vineyard  was  shot  down  at  his  work.  A  little  pastr}"- 
cook's  boy,  nicknamed  Biscuit  by  the  Arboisians,  who,  led 
by  curiosity,  had  come  down  from  the  upper  town  to  the 
big  poplar  trees  at  the  entrance  of  Arbois,  suddenly 
staggered,  struck  by  a  Prussian  bullet.  He  was  just  able 
to  creep  back  to  the  first  house,  his  eyes  already  dimmed  by 
death. 

Those  were  but  the  chances  of  war,  but  other  crueller 
episodes  thrilled  Pasteur  to  the  very  depths  of  his  soul. 
Such  things  are  lost  in  history,  just  as  a  little  blood  spilt 
disappears  in  a  river,  but,  for  the  witnesses  and  contempo- 
raries of  the  facts,  the  trace  of  blood  remains.  An  incident 
will  help  the  reader  to  understand  the  lasting  indignation 
the  war  excited  in  Pasteur. 

One  of  the  Prussian  sergeants,  who,  after  the  shot  fired 
at  Montigny,  were  leading  small  detachments  of  soldiers, 
thought  that  a  house  on  the  outskirts  of  Arbois,  in  the 
faubourg  of  Verreux,  looked  as  if  it  might  shelter  francs 
tireurs.  He  directed  his  men  towards  it  and  the  house  was 
soon  reached. 

It  was  now  twelve  o'clock,  all  fighting  had  ceased,  and  the 

265 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

first  Prussians  who  had  arrived  were  masters  of  the  town. 
Others  were  arriving  from  various  directions;  a  heavy 
silence  reigned  over  the  town.  The  mayor,  M.  Lefort,  led 
by  a  Prussian  officer  who  covered  him  with  a  revolver 
whenever  he  addressed  him,  was  treated  as  a  hostage 
responsible  for  absolute  submission.  Every  door  in  the 
small  Town  Hall  was  opened  in  succession  in  order  to  see 
that  there  were  no  arms  hidden.  The  mayor  was  each  time 
made  to  pass  first,  so  -that  he  should  receive  the  shot  in  case 
of  a  surprise.  In  the  library,  three  flags,  which  General 
Delort  had  brought  back  from  the  Rhine  campaign  when 
he  was  a  captain  in  the  cavalry  and  given  to  his  native 
town,  were  torn  down  and  the  general's  bust  overturned. 

The  sergeant,  violently  entering  the  suspected  house  with 
his  men,  found  a  whole  family  peacefully  sitting  down  to 
their  dinner — the  husband,  wife,  a  son  of  nineteen,  and  two 
young  daughters.  The  invaders  made  no  search  nor  asked 
any  questions  of  those  poor  people,  who  had  probably  done 
nothing  worse  than  to  offer  a  few  glasses  of  wine  to  French 
soldiers  as  they  passed.  The  sergeant  did  not  even  ask  the 
name  of  the  master  of  the  house  (Antoine  Ducret,  aged  fifty- 
nine),  but  seized  him  by  his  coat  and  ordered  his  men  to  seize 
the  son  too.  The  woman,  who  rushed  to  the  door  in  her  endea- 
vour to  prevent  her  husband  and  her  son  from  being  thus 
taken  from  her,  was  violently  flung  to  the  end  of  the  room, 
her  trembling  daughters  crouching  around  her  as  they 
listened  to  the  heavy  Prussian  boots  going  down  the  wooden 
stairs.  There  is  a  public  drinking  fountain  not  far  from  the 
house  ;  Ducret  was  taken  there  and  placed  against  a  wall.  He 
understood,  and  cried  out,  "  Spare  my  son!!"  "What do 
you  say  ?  "  said  the  sergeant  to  the  boy.  "  I  will  stay  with 
my  father,"  he  answered  simply.  The  father,  struck  by 
two  bullets  at  close  range,  fell  at  the  feet  of  his  son,  who 

266 


1870-1872 

was  shot  down  immediately  afterwards.  The  two  corpses, 
afterwards  mutilated  with  bayonets,  remained  lying  by  the 
water  side;  the  neighbours  succeeded  in  preventing  the 
mother  and  her  two  daughters  from  leaving  their  house 
until  the  bodies  had  been  placed  in  a  coffin.  On  the  tombs 
of  Antoine  and  Charles  Ducret  the  equivocal  inscription 
was  placed  "Fell  at  Arbois,  January  25,  1871,  under 
Prussian  fire."  For  the  honour  of  humanity,  a  German 
officer,  having  heard  these  details,  offered  the  life  of  the 
sergeant  to  Ducret's  widow  ;  but  she  entertained  no  thoughts 
of  revenge.  "  His  death  would  not  give  them  back  to  me," 
she  said. 

Pasteur  could  not  become  resigned  to  the  humiliation  of 
France,  and,  tearing  his  thoughts  from  the  nightmare  of  the 
war  and  the  Commune,  he  dwelt  continually  on  the  efforts 
that  would  be  necessary  to  carry  out  the  great  task  of 
raising  the  country  once  again  to  its  proper  rank.  In  his 
mind  it  was  the  duty  of  every  one  to  say,  "  In  what  way 
can  I  be  useful  ?  "  Each  man  should  strive  not  so  much  to 
play  a  great  part  as  to  give  the  best  of  his  ability.  He  had 
no  patience  with  those  who  doubt  everything  in  order  to 
have  an  excuse  for  doing  nothing. 

He  had  indeed  known  dark  moments  of  doubt  and  mis- 
givings, as  even  the  greatest  minds  must  do,  but  not- 
withstanding these  periods  of  discouragement  he  was 
convinced  that  science  and  peace  will  ultimately  triumph 
over  ignorance  and  war.  In  spite  of  recent  events,  the 
bitter  conditions  of  peace  which  tore  unwilling  Alsace 
and  part  of  Lorraine  away  from  France,  the  heavy  tax 
of  gold  and  of  blood  weighing  down  future  generations, 
the  sad  visions  of  young  men  in  their  prime  cut  down  on 
the  battlefield  or  breathing  their  last  in  hospitals  all  to 
no  apparent  purpose;  in  spite  of  all  these  sad  memories 

267 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

he  was  persuaded  that  thinkers  would  gradually  awaken 
in  the  nations  ideas  of  justice  and  of  concord. 

He  had  now  for  nine  years  been  following  with  a 
passionate  interest  some  work  begun  in  his  own  laboratory 
by  Raulin,  his  first  curator.  Some  of  the  letters  he  wrote 
to  Raulin  during  those  nine  years  give  us  a  faint  idea  of 
the  master  that  Pasteur  was.  It  had  been  with  great 
regret  that  Raulin  had  left  the  laboratory  in  obedience 
to  the  then  laws  of  the  University  in  order  to  take  up 
active  work  at  the  Brest  college,  and  Pasteur's  letters 
(December,  1862)  brought  him  joy  and  encouragement: 
"  Keep  up  your  courage,  do  not  allow  the  idleness  of 
provincial  life  to  disturb  you.  Teach  your  pupils  to  the 
very  best  of  your  ability  and  give  up  your  leisure  to 
experiments  ;  this  was  M.  Biot's  advice  to  myself."  When 
in  July,  1863,  he  began  to  fear  that  Raulin  might  allow 
imagination  to  lead  him  astray  in  his  work,  he  repeatedly 
advised  him  to  state  nothing  that  could  not  be  proved: 
"  Be  very  strict  in  your  deductions  "  ;  then,  apparently, 
loth  to  damp  the  young  man's  ardour:  "I  have  the  greatest 
confidence  in  your  judgement  ;  do  not  take  too  much  heed 
of  my  observations." 

In  1863  Pasteur  asked  Raulin  to  come  with  him,  Gernez 
and  Duclaux,  to  Arbois  for  some  studies  on  wines,  etc., 
but  Raulin,  absorbed  in  the  investigations  he  had  under- 
taken, refused  ;  in  1865  he  refused  to  come  to  Alais,  still 
being  completely  wrapt  up  in  the  same  work.  Pasteur 
sympathized  heartily  with  his  pupil's  perseverance,  and, 
when  Raulin  was  at  last  able  to  announce  to  his  m-aster 
the  results  so  long  sought  after,  Pasteur  hurried  to  Caen, 
where  Raulin  was  now  professor  of  Physics,  and  returned 
full  of  enthusiasm.  His  modesty  in  all  that  concerned 
himself  now  giving  way  to  dehghted  pride,  he  spoke  of 

268 


I870-I872 

Raulin's  discoveries  to  every  one.  Yet  they  concerned  an 
apparently  unimportant  subject — a  microscopical  fungus, 
a  simple  mucor,  whose  spores,  mingled  with  atmospheric 
germs,  develop  on  bread  moistened  with  vinegar  or  on  a 
slice  of  lemon  ;  j'^et  no  precious  plant  ever  inspired  more 
care  or  solicitude  than  that  aspergillus  niger,  as  it  is 
called.  Raulin,  inspired  by  Pasteur's  studies  on  cultures 
in  an  artificial  medium,  that  is,  a  medium  exclusively 
composed  of  defined  chemical  substances,  resolved  to  find 
for  this  plant  a  typical  medium  capable  of  giving  its 
maximum  development  to  the  aspergillus  niger.  Some  of 
his  comrades  looked  upon  this  as  upon  a  sort  of  laboratory 
amusement  ;  but  Raulin,  ever  a  man  of  one  idea,  looked 
upon  the  culture  of  microscopic  vegetation  as  a  step  towards 
a  greater  knowledge  of  vegetable  physiology,  leading  to 
the  development  of  artificial  manure  production,  and  from 
that  to  the  rational  nutrition  of  the  human  organisms.  He 
started  from  the  conditions  indicated  by  Pasteur  for  the 
development  of  mucedin^e  in  general  and  in  particular  for 
a  mucor  which  has  some  points  of  resemblance  with  the 
aspergillus  niger,  the  pénicillium  glaucum^  which  spreads 
a  bluish  tint  over  mouldy  bread,  jam,  and  soft  cheeses. 
Raulin  began  by  placing  pure  spores  of  aspergillus  niger  on 
the  surface  of  a  saucer  containing  everything  that  seemed 
necessary  to  their  perfect  growth,  in  a  stove  heated  to  a 
temperature  of  20°  C.  ;  but  in  spite  of  every  care,  after  forty- 
five  days  had  passed,  the  tiny  fungus  was  languishing  and 
unhealthy.  A  temperature  of  30°  did  not  seem  more  suc- 
cessful ;  and  when  the  stove  was  heated  to  above  38°  the 
result  was  the  same.  At  35°,  with  a  moist  and  changing 
atmosphere,  the  result  was  favourable — very  fortunately 
for  Raulin,  for  the  principal  of  the  college,  an  economically 
minded  man,  did  not  approve  of  burning  so  much  gas  for 

269 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

such  a  tiny  fungus  and  with  such  poor  results.  This  want 
of  sympathy  excited  Raulin's  solemn  wrath  and  caused 
him  to  meditate  dark  projects  of  revenge,  such  as  ignoring 
his  enemy  in  the  street  on  some  future  "occasion.  In  the 
meanwhile  he  continued  his  slow  and  careful  experiments. 
He  succeeded  at  last  in  composing  a  liquid,  technically 
called  Raulin's  hquid,  in  which  the  aspergillus  niger  grew 
and  flourished  within  six  or  even  three  days.  Eleven 
substances  were  necessary  :  water,  candied  sugar,  tartaric 
acid,  nitrate  of  ammonia,  phosphate  of  ammonia,  carbonate 
of  potash,  carbonate  of  magnesia,  sulphate  of  ammonia, 
sulphate  of  zinc,  sulphate  of  iron,  and  silicate  of  potash. 
He  now  studied  the  part  played  by  each  of  those  elements, 
varying  his  quantities,  taking  away  one  substance  and 
adding  another,  and  obtained  some  very  curious  results. 
For  instance,  the  aspergillus  was  extraordinarily  sensitive 
to  the  action  of  zinc  ;  if  the  quantity  of  zinc  was  reduced 
by  a  few  milligrams  the  vegetation  decreased  by  one-tenth. 
Other  elements  were  pernicious;  if  Raulin  added  to  his 
liq^d  ^eo^^^o  of  nitrate  of  silver,  the  growth  of  the  fungus 
ceased.  Moreover,  if  he  placed  the  liquid  in  a  silver  goblet 
instead  of  a  china  saucer,  the  vegetation  did  not  even 
begin,  "  though,"  writes  M.  Duclaux,  analysing  this  fine 
work  of  his  fellow  student,  "it  is  almost  impossible  to 
chemically  detect  any  dissolution  of  the  silver  into  the 
liquid.     But  the  fungus  proves  it  by  dying." 

In  this  thesis,  now  a  classic,  which  only  appeared  in  1870, 
Raulin  enumerated  with  joyful  gratitude  all  that  he  owed 
to  his  illustrious  master — general  views,  principles  and 
methods,  suggestive  ideas,  advice  and  encouragement — say- 
ing that  Pasteur  had  shown  him  the  road  on  which  he  had 
travelled  so  far.  Pasteur,  touched  by  his  pupil's  affection, 
wrote  to  thank  him,  saying  :    "  You  credit  me  with  too 

270 


I870-I872 

much  ;  it  is  enough  for  me  that  your  work  should  be  known 
as  having  been  begun  in  my  laboratory,  and  in  a  direction 
the  fruitfulness  of  which  I  was  perhaps  the  first  to  point 
out.  I  had  only  conceived  hopes,  and  you  bring  us  solid 
realities." 

In  April,  1871,  Pasteur,  preoccupied  with  the  future, 
and  ambitious  for  those  who  might  come  after  him,  wrote 
to  Claude  Bernard  :  "  Allow  me  to  submit  to  you  an  idea 
which  has  occurred  to  me,  that  of  conferring  on  my  dear 
pupil  and  friend  Raulin  the  Experimental  Physiology 
prize,  for  his  splendid  work  on  the  nutriment  of  mucors, 
or  rather  of  a  mucor,  the  excellence  of  which  work  has 
not  escaped  you.  I  doubt  if  you  can  find  anything  better. 
I  must  tell  you  that  this  idea  occurred  to  me  whilst  read- 
ing your  admirable  report  on  the  progress  of  General 
Physiology  in  France.  If  therefore  my  suggestion  seems 
to  you  acceptable,  you  will  have  sown  the  germ  of  it  in  my 
mind;  if  you  disapprove  of  it  I  shall  make  you  partly 
responsible." 

Claude  Bernard  hastened  to  reply:  "You  may  depend 
upon  my  support  for  your  pupil  M.  Raulin.  It  will  be  for 
me  both  a  pleasure  and  a  duty  to  support  such  excellent 
work  and  to  glorify  the  method  of  the  master  who  inspired 
it." 

In  his  letter  to  Claude  Bernard  Pasteur  had  added  these 
words  :  "  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  go  and  spend  a  few 
months  at  Royat  with  my  family,  so  as  to  be  near  my  dear 
Duclaux.  We  shall  raise  a  few  grammes  of  silkworm 
seed." 

M.  Duclaux  was  then  professor  of  chemistry  at  the 
Faculty  of  Clermont  Ferrand,  a  short  distance  from  Royat, 
and  Pasteur  intended  to  walk  every  day  to  the  laboratory 
of  his  former  pupil.    But  M.  Duclaux  did  not  countenance 

271 


THE   LIFE   OF   PASTEUR 

this  plan;  he  meant  to  entertain  his  master  and  his 
master's  family  in  his  own  house,  25,  Rue  Montlosier, 
where  he  could  even  have  one  room  arranged  as  a  silkworm 
nursery.  He  succeeded  in  persuading  Pasteur,  and  they 
organized  a  delightful  home  life  which  recalled  the  days  at 
Pont  Gisquet  before  the  war. 

Pasteur  was  seeking  the  means  of  making  his  seed-select- 
ing process  applicable  to  small  private  nurseries  as  well  as 
to  large  industrial  establishments.  The  only  difficulty  was 
the  cost  of  the  indispensable  microscope;  but  Pasteur 
thought  that  each  village  might  possess  its  microscope,  and 
that  the  village  schoolmaster  might  be  entrusted  with  the 
examination  of  the  moths. 

In  a  letter  written  in  April,  1 871,  to  M.  Bellotti,  of  the 
Milan  Civic  Museum,  Pasteur,  after  describing  in  a  few 
lines  the  simple  process  he  had  taken  five  years  to  study, 
added — 

"  If  I  dared  to  quote  myself,  I  would  recall  those  words 
from  my  book — 

"  '  If  I  were  a  silkworm  cultivator  I  never  would  raise 
seed  from  worms  I  had  not  observed  during  the  last  days 
of  their  life,  so  as  to  satisfy  myself  as  to  their  vigour  and 
agility  just  before  spinning.  The  seed  chosen  should  be 
that  which  comes  from  worms  who  climbed  the  twigs  with 
agility,  who  showed  no  mortality  from  flachery  between 
the  fourth  moulting  and  climbing  time,  and  whose  freedom 
from  corpuscles  will  have  been  demonstrated  by  the  micro- 
scope. If  that  is  done,  any  one  with  the  slightest  knowledge 
of  silkworm  culture  will  succeed  in  every  case.'  " 

Italy  and  Austria  vied  with  each  other  in  adopting  the 
seed  selected  by  the  Pasteur  system.  But  it  was  only  when 
Pasteur  was  on  the  eve  of  receiving  from  the  Austrian 
Government  the  great  prize  offered  in  1868  to  "  whoever 

272 


I870-I872 

should  discover  a  preventive  and  curative  remedy  against 
pébrine  "  that  French  sericicultors  began  to  be  convinced. 
The  French  character  offers  this  strange  contrast,  that 
France  is  often  willing  to  risk  her  fortune  and  her  blood 
for  causes  which  may  be  unworthy,  whilst  at  another 
moment,  in  everyday  life,  she  shrinks  at  the  least  innova- 
tion before  accepting  a  benefit  originated  on  her  own  soil. 
The  French  often  wait  until  other  nations  have  adopted 
and  approved  a  French  discovery  before  venturing  to  adopt 
it  in  their  turn. 

Pasteur  did  not  stop  to  look  back  and  delight  in  his 
success,  but  hastened  to  turn  his  mind  to  another  kind  of 
study.  His  choice  of  a  subject  was  influenced  by  patriotic 
motives.  Germany  was  incontestably  superior  to  France 
in  the  manufacture  of  beer,  and  he  conceived  the  thought 
of  making  France  a  successful  rival  in  that  respect;  in 
order  to  enable  himself  to  do  so,  he  undertook  to  study  the 
scientific  mechanism  of  beer  manufacture 

There  was  a  brewery  at  Chamalières,  between  Clermont 
and  Royat.  Pasteur  began  by  visiting  it  with  eager  curi- 
osity, inquiring  into  the  minutest  details,  endeavouring 
to  find  out  the  why  and  the  wherefore  of  every  process, 
and  receiving  vague  answers  with  much  astonishment. 
M.  Kuhn,  the  Chamalières  brewer,  did  not  know  much 
more  about  beer  than  did  his  fellow-brewers  in  general. 
Very  little  was  known  at  that  time  about  the  way  it  was 
produced  ;  when  brewers  received  complaints  from  their 
customers,  they  procured  yeast  from  a  fresh  soturce.  In  a 
book  of  reference  which  was  then  much  in  use,  entitled, 
Alimentary  Substances  :  the  Means  of  Improving  and  Pre- 
serving them,  and  of  Recognising  their  Alterations,  six  pages 
were  given  up  to  beer  by  the  author,  M.  Payen,  a  member 
of  the  Institute.     He  merely  showed  that  germinated  barley, 

VOL.  T  273  T 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

called  malt,  was  diluted,  then  heated  and  mixed  with  hops, 
thus  forming  beer-wort,  which  was  submitted,  when  cold, 
to  alcoholic  fermentation  through  the  yeast  added  to  the 
above  liquid.  M,  Payen  conceded  to  beer  some  nutritive 
properties,  but  added,  a  little  disdainfully,  "  Beer,  perhaps 
on  account  of  the  pungent  smell  of  hops,  does  not  seem 
endowed  with  stimulating  properties  as  agreeable,  or  as 
likely  to  inspire  such  bright  and  cheerful  ideas,  as  the  sweet 
and  varied  aroma  of  the  good  wines  of  France." 

In  a  paragraph  on  the  alterations  of  beer — "  spontaneous 
alterations" — M.  Payen  said  that  it  was  chiefly  during  the 
summer  that  beer  became  altered.  "  It  becomes  acid,  and 
even  noticeably  putrid,  and  ceases  to  be  fit  to  drink." 

Pasteur's  hopes  of  making  French  beer  capable  of  com- 
peting with  German  beer  were  much  strengthened  by  faith 
in  his  own  method.  He  had,  by  experimental  proof,  de- 
stroyed the  theory  of  spontaneous  generation  ;  he  had 
shown  that  chance  has  no  share  in  fermentations;  the 
animated  nature  and  the  specific  characteristics  of  those 
ferments,  the  methods  of  culture  in  appropriate  media,  were 
so  many  scientific  points  gained.  The  difficulties  which 
remained  to  be  solved  were  the  question  of  pure  yeast  and 
the  search  for  the  causes  of  alteration  which  make  beer 
thick,  acid,  sour,  slimy  or  putrid.  Pasteur  thought  that 
these  alterations  were  probably  due  to  the  development  of 
germs  in  the  air,  in  the  water,  or  on  the  surface  of  the 
numerous  utensils  used  in  a  brewery. 

As  he  advanced  further  and  further  into  that  domain  of 
the  infinitely  small  which  he  had  discovered,  whether  the 
subject  was  wine,  vinegar,  or  silkworms — this  last  study 
already  opening  before  him  glimpses  of  light  on  human 
pathology — new  and  unexpected  visions  rose  before  his 
sight. 

274 


I870-I872 

Pasteur  had  formerly  demonstrated  that  if  a  putrescible 
liquid,  such  as  beef  broth  for  instance,  after  being  pre- 
viously boiled,  is  kept  in  a  vessel  with  a  long  curved  neck, 
the  air  only  reaching  it  after  having  deposited  its  germs  in 
the  curves  of  the  neck,  does  not  alter  it  in  any  way.  He 
now  desired  to  invent  an  apparatus  which  would  protect 
the  wort  against  external  dusts,  against  the  microscopic 
germs  ever  ready  to  interfere  with  the  course  of  proper 
fermentation  by  the  introduction  of  other  noxious  ferments. 
It  was  necessary  to  prove  that  beer  remains  unalterable 
whenever  it  does  not  contain  the  organisms  which  cause 
its  diseases.  Many  technical  difficulties  were  in  the  way, 
but  the  brewers  of  Chamalières  tried  in  the  most  obliging 
manner  to  facilitate  things  for  him. 

This  exchange  of  services  between  science  and  industry 
was  in  accordance  with  Pasteur's  plan;  though  he  had 
been  prophesying  for  fourteen  years  the  great  progress 
which  would  result  from  an  alliance  between  laboratories 
and  factories,  the  idea  was  hardly  understood  at  that  time. 
Yet  the  manufacturers  of  Lille  and  Orleans,  the  wine 
merchants  and  the  silkworm  cultivators  of  the  South  ot 
France,  and  of  Austria  and  Italy,  might  well  have  been 
called  as  enthusiastic  witnesses  to  the  advantages  of  such 
a  collaboration. 

Pasteur,  happy  to  make  the  fortune  of  others,  intended 
to  organize,  against  the  danger  of  alterations  in  beer, 
some  experiments  which  would  give  to  that  industry  solid 
notions  resting  on  a  scientific  basis.  "  Dear  master," 
wrote  he  to  J.  B.  Dumas  on  August  4,  187 1,  from  Cler- 
mont, "  I  have  asked  the  brewer  to  send  you  twelve 
bottles  of  my  beer.  ...  I  hope  you  will  find  it  compares 
favourably  even  with  the  excellent  beer  of  Paris  cafés." 
There  was  a  postscript  to  this  letter,  proving  once  more 

275 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Pasteur's  solicitude  for  his  pupils.  "A  thousand  thanks 
for  your  kind  welcome  of  Raulin's  work  ;  Bernard's  support 
has  also  been  promised  him.  The  Academy  could  not  find  a 
better  recipient  for  the  prize.     It  is  quite  exceptional  work." 

Pasteur,  ever  full  of  praises  for  his  pupil,  also  found 
excuses  for  him,.  In  spite  of  M.  Duclaux's  pressing  request, 
Raulin  had  again  found  reasons  to  refuse  an  invitation  to 
come  to  Auvergne  for  a  few  days.  "  I  regret  very  much 
that  you  did  not  come  to  see  us,"  wrote  Pasteur  to  Raulin, 
"  especially  on  account  of  the  beer.  .  .  .  Tell  me  what  you 
think  of  doing.  When  are  you  coming  to  Paris  for  good  ? 
I  shall  want  you  to  help  me  to  arrange  my  laboratory, 
where  everything,  as  you  know,  has  still  to  be  done  ;  it 
must  be  put  into  working  order  as  soon  as  possible." 

Pasteur  would  have  liked  Raulin  to  come  with  him  to 
London  in  September,  187 1,  before  settling  down  in  Paris. 

The  Chamalières  brewery  was  no  longer  sufficient  for 
Pasteur;  he  wished  to  see  one  of  those  great  English 
breweries  which  produce  in  one  year  more  than  100,000 
hectolitres  of  beer.  The  great  French  savant  was  most 
courteously  received  by  the  managers  of  one  of  the  most 
important  breweries  in  London,  who  offered  to  show  him 
round  the  works  where  250  men  were  employed.  But 
Pasteur  asked  for  a  little  of  the  barm  of  the  porter  which 
was  flowing  into  a  trough  from  the  cask.  He  examined 
that  yeast  with  a  microscope,  and  soon  recognized  a  noxious 
ferment  which  he  drew  on  a  piece  of  paper  and  showed  to 
the  bystanders,  saying,  "  This  porter  must  leave  much  to 
be  desired,"  to  the  astonished  managers,  who  had  not 
expected  this  sudden  criticism.  Pasteur  added  that  surely 
the  defect  must  have  been  betrayed  by  a  bad  taste, 
perhaps  already  complained  of  by  some  customers.  There- 
upon the  managers  owned  that  that  very  morning  some 

276 


1870-1872 

fresh  yeast  had  had  to  be  procured  from  another  brewery. 
Pasteur  asked  to  see  the  new  yeast,  and  found  it  incom- 
parably purer,  but  such  was  not  the  case  with  the  barm 
of  the  other  products  then  in  fermentation — ale  and  pale 
ale. 

By  degrees,  samples  of  every  kind  of  beer  on  the  premises 
were  brought  to  Pasteur  and  put  under  the  microscope. 
He  detected  marked  beginnings  of  disease  in  some,  in  others 
merely  a  trace,  but  a  threatening  one.  The  various  foremen 
were  sent  for  ;  this  scientific  visit  seemed  like  a  police 
inquiry.  The  owner  of  the  brewery,  who  had  been  fetched, 
was  obliged  to  register,  one  after  another,  these  experi- 
mental demonstrations.  It  was  only  human  to  show  a 
little  surprise,  perhaps  a  little  impatience  of  wounded  feel- 
ing. But  it  was  impossible  to  mistake  the  authority  of  the 
French  scientist's  words  :  "  Every  marked  alteration  in 
the  quality  of  the  beer  coincides  with  the  development  of 
micro-organisms  foreign  to  the  nature  of  true  beer  yeast." 
It  would  have  been  interesting  to  a  psychologist  to  study 
in  the  expression  of  Pasteur's  hearers  those  shades  of  curi- 
osity, doubt,  and  approbation,  which  ended  in  the  thoroughly 
English  conclusion  that  there  was  profit  to  be  made  out  of 
this  object  lesson. 

Pasteur  afterwards  remembered  with  a  smile  the  answers 
he  received,  rather  vague  at  first,  then  clearer,  and,  finally 
— interest  and  confidence  now  obtained — the  confession  that 
there  was  in  a  corner  of  the  brewery  a  quantity  of  spoilt 
beer,  which  had  gone  wrong  only  a  fortnight  after  it  was 
made,  and  was  not  drinkable.  "I  examined  it  with  a 
microscope,"  said  Pasteur,  "  and  could  not  at  first  detect 
any  ferments  of  disease  ;  but  guessing  that  it  might  have 
become  clear  through  a  long  rest,  the  ferments  now  inert 
having  dropped  to  the  bottom  of  the  reservoirs,  I  examined 

277 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

the  deposit  at  the  bottom  of  the  reservoirs.  It  was  entirely 
composed  of  filaments  of  disease  unmixed  with  the  least 
globule  of  alcoholic  yeast.  The  complementary  fermenta- 
tion of  that  beer  had  therefore  been  exclusively  a  morbid 
fermentation." 

When  he  visited  the  same  brewery  again,  a  week  later, 
he  found  that  not  only  had  a  microscope  been  procured 
immediately,  but  the  yeast  of  all  the  beer  then  being  brewed 
had  been  changed. 

Pasteur  was  happy  to  offer  to  the  English,  who  like  to 
call  themselves  practical  men,  a  proof  of  the  usefulness  ot 
disinterested  science,  persuaded  as  he  was  that  the  moral 
debt  incurred  to  a  French  scientist  would  in  some  measure 
revert  to  France  herself.  "We  must  make  some  friends 
for  our  beloved  France,"  he  would  say.  And  if  in  the 
course  of  conversation  an  Englishman  gave  expression  to 
any  doubt  concerning  the  future  of  the  country,  Pasteur, 
his  grave  and  powerful  face  full  of  energy,  would  answer 
that  every  Frenchman,  after  the  horrible  storm  which  had 
raged  for  so  many  months,  was  valiantly  returning  to  his 
daily  task,  whether  great  or  humble,  each  one  thinking  of 
retrieving  the  national  fall. 

Every  morning,  as  he  left  his  hotel  to  go  to  the  various 
breweries  which  he  was  now  privileged  to  visit  in  their 
smallest  details,  he  observed  this  English  people,  knowing 
the  value  of  time,  seeing  its  own  interests  in  all  things, 
consistent  in  its  ideas  and  in  its  efforts,  respectful  of  estab- 
lished institutions  and  hierarchy;  and  he  thought  with 
regret  how  his  own  countrymen  lacked  these  qualities. 
But  if  the  French  are  rightly  taxed  with  a  feverish  love 
of  change,  should  not  justice  be  rendered  to  that  generous 
side  of  the  French  character,  so  gifted,  capable  of  so  much, 
and  which  finds  in  self-sacrifice  the  secret  of  energy,  for 

278 


I870-I872 

whom  hatred  is  a  real  suffering?  "Let  us  work!" 
Pasteur's  favourite  phrase  ever  ended  those  philosophical 
discussions. 

He  wanted  to  do  two  years'  work  in  one,  regardless  of 
health  and  strength.  Beyond  the  diseases  of  beer,  avoid- 
able since  they  come  from  outside,  he  foresaw  the  applica- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  exterior  germs  to  other  diseases. 
But  he  did  not  allow  his  imagination  to  run  away  with 
him,  and  resolutely  fixed  his  mind  on  his  present  object, 
which  was  the  application  of  science  to  the  brewing  in- 
dustry. 

"The  interest  of  those  visits  to  English  breweries," 
wrote  Pasteur  to  Raulin,  "and  of  the  information  I  am 
able  to  collect  (I  hear  that  I  ought  to  consider  this  as  a 
great  favour)  causes  me  to  regret  very  much  that  you 
should  be  in  want  of  rest,  for  I  am  sure  you  would  have 
been  charmed  to  acquire  so  much  instruction  de  visu.  Why 
should  you  not  come  for  a  day  or  two  if  your  health  per- 
mits ?  Do  as  you  like  about  that,  but  in  any  case  prepare 
for  immediate  work  on  my  return.  We  need  not  wait  for 
the  new  laboratory  ;  we  can  settle  down  in  the  old  one  and 
in  a  Paris  brewery." 

When  Pasteur  returned  to  Paris,  Bertin,  who  had  not 
seen  him  since  the  recent  historic  events,  welcomed  him 
with  a  radiant  delight.  School  friendships  are  like  those 
favourite  books  which  always  open  at  the  page  we  prefer  ; 
time  has  no  hold  on  certain  affections;  ever  new,  ever 
young,  they  never  show  signs  of  age.  Bertin' s  love  was 
very  precious  to  Pasteur,  though  the  two  friends  were 
as  different  from  each  other  as  possible.  Pasteur,  ever 
preoccupied,  seemed  to  justifj^  the  Englishman  who  said 
that  genius  consists  in  an  infinite  capacity  for  taking 
pains;  whilst  Bertin,  with  his  merry  eyes,  was  the  very 

279 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

image  of  a  smiling  philosopher.  In  spite  of  his  position 
as  sub-director,  which  he  most  conscientious!}'-  filled,  he 
was  not  afraid  to  whistle  or  to  sing  popular  songs  as  he 
went  along  the  passages  of  the  Ecole  Normale.  He  came 
round  to  Pasteur's  rooms  almost  every  evening,  bringing 
with  him  joy,  lightness  of  heart,  and  a  rest  and  relaxation 
for  the  mind,  brightening  up  his  friend  by  his  amusing 
way  of  looking  at  things  in  general,  and — at  that  time — 
beer  in  particular. 

Whilst  Pasteur  saw  but  pure  yeast,  and  thought  but  of 
spores  of  disease,  ferments,  and  parasitic  invasions,  Bertin 
would  dilate  on  certain  cafés  in  the  Latin  quarter,  where, 
without  regard  to  great  scientific  principles,  experts  could 
be  asked  to  pronounce  between  the  beer  on  the  premises 
and  laboratory  beer,  harmless  and  almost  agreeable,  but 
lacking  in  the  refinement  of  taste  of  which  Bertin,  who  had 
spent  many  years  in  Strasburg,  was  a  competent  judge. 
Pasteur,  accustomed  to  an  absolutely  infallible  method,  like 
that  which  he  had  invented  for  the  seeding  of  silkworms, 
heard  Bertin  say  to  him,  "  First  of  all,  give  me  a  good  bock, 
you  can  talk  learnedly  afterwards."  Pasteur  acknow- 
ledged, however,  the  improvements  obtained  by  certain 
brewers,  who,  thanks  to  the  experience  of  years,  knew  how 
to  choose  yeast  which  gave  a  particular  taste,  and  also  how 
to  employ  preventive  measures  against  accidental  and 
pernicious  ferments  (such  as  the  use  of  ice,  or  of  hops  in  a 
larger  quantity).  But,  though  laughing  at  Bertin's  jokes, 
Pasteur  was  convinced  that  great  progress  in  the  brewer's 
art  would  date  from  his  studies. 

He  was  now  going  through  a  series  of  experiments, 
buying  at  Bertin's  much  praised  cafés  samples  of  various 
famous  beers — Strasburg,  Nancy,  Vienna,  Burton's,  etc. 
After  letting  the  samples  rest  for  twenty-four  hours  he 

280 


I870-I872 

decanted  them  and  sowed  one  drop  of  the  deposit  in  vessels 
full  of  pure  wort,  which  he  placed  in  a  temperature  of 
20°  C.  After  fifteen  or  eighteen  days  he  studied  and  tasted 
the  yeasts  formed  in  the  wort,  and  found  them  all  to  con- 
tain ferments  of  diseases.  He  sowed  some  pure  yeast  in 
some  other  vessels,  with  the  same  precautions,  and  all  the 
beers  of  this  series  remained  pure  from  strange  ferments 
and  free  from  bad  taste  ;  they  had  merely  become  flat. 

He  was  eagerly  seeking  the  means  of  judging  how  his 
laboratory  tests  would  work  in  practice.  He  spent  some 
time  at  Tantonville,  in  Lorraine,  visiting  an  immense 
brewery,  of  which  the  owners  were  the  brothers  Tourtel. 
Though  very  carefully  kept,  the  brewery  was  yet  not  quite 
clean  enough  to  satisfy  him.  It  is  true  that  he  was  more 
than  difficult  to  please  in  that  respect  ;  a  small  detail  of  his 
everyday  life  revealed  this  constant  preoccupation.  He  never 
used  a  plate  or  a  glass  without  examining  them  minutely 
and  wiping  them  carefully  ;  no  microscopic  speck  of  dust 
escaped  his  short-sighted  eyes.  Whether  at  home  or  with 
strangers  he  invariably  went  through  this  preliminary 
exercise,  in  spite  of  the  anxious  astonishment  of  his  hostess, 
who  usually  feared  that  some  negligence  had  occurred,  until 
Pasteur,  noticing  her  slight  dismay,  assured  her  that  this 
was  but  an  inveterate  scientist's  habit.  If  he  carried  such 
minute  care  into  daily  life,  we  can  imagine  how  strict  was 
his  examination  of  scientific  things  and  of  brewery  tanks. 

After  those  studies  at  Tantonville  with  his  curator,  M. 
Grenet,  Pasteur  laid  down  three  great  principles — 

1.  Every  alteration  either  of  the  wort  or  of  the  beer  itself 
depends  on  the  development  of  micro-organisms  which  are 
ferments  of  diseases. 

2.  These  germs  of  ferments  are  brought  by  the  air,  by 
the  ingredients,  or  by  the  apparatus  used  in  breweries. 

281 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

3.  Whenever  beer  contains  no  living  germs  it  is  unalter- 
able. 

When  once  those  principles  were  formulated  and  proved 
they  were  to  triumph  over  all  professional  uncertainties. 
And  in  the  same  way  that  wines  could  be  preserved  from 
various  causes  of  alteration  by  heating,  bottled  beer  could 
escape  the  development  of  disease  ferments  by  being 
brought  to  a  temperature  of  50°  to  55°.  The  application  of 
this  process  gave  rise  to  the  new  word  "  pasteurised  "  beer, 
a  neologism  which  soon  became  current  in  technical 
language. 

Pasteur  foresaw  the  distant  consequences  of  these  studies, 
and  wrote  in  his  book  on  beer — 

"When  we  see  beer  and  wine  subjected  to  deep  altera- 
tions because  they  have  given  refuge  to  micro-organisms 
invisibly  introduced  and  now  swarming  within  them,  it  is 
impossible  not  to  be  pursued  by  the  thought  that  similar 
facts  may,  musty  take  place  in  animals  and  in  man.  But  if 
we  are  inclined  to  believe  that  it  is  so  because  we  think  it 
likely  and  possible,  let  us  endeavour  to  remember,  before 
we  affirm  it,  that  the  greatest  disorder  of  the  mind  is  to 
allow  the  will  to  direct  the  belief." 

This  shows  us  once  more  the  strange  duality  of  this 
inspired  man,  who  associated  in  his  person  the  faith  of  an 
apostle  with  the  inquiring  patience  of  a  scientist. 

He  was  often  disturbed  by  tiresome  discussions  from  the 
researches  to  which  he  would  gladly  have  given  his  whole 
time.  The  heterogenists  had  not  surrendered  ;  they  would 
not  admit  that  alterable  organic  liquids  could  be  indefinitely 
preserved  from  putrefaction  and  fermentation  when  in 
contact  with  air  freed  from  dusts. 

Pouchet,  the  most  celebrated  of  them,  who  considered 
that  part  of  a  scientist's  duty  consists  in  vulgarizing  his 

282 


I870-I872 

discoveries,  was  preparing  for  the  New  Year,  1872,  a  book 
called  The  Universe  :  the  Infinitely  Great  and  the  Infinitely 
Small.  He  enthusiastically  recalled  the  spectacle  revealed 
at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  microscope, 
which  he  compared  to  a  sixth  sense.  He  praised  the  dis- 
coveries made  in  1838  by  Ehrenberg  on  the  prodigious 
activity  of  infusories,  but  he  never  mentioned  Pasteur's 
name,  leaving  entirely  on  one  side  the  immense  work 
accomplished  by  the  infinitely  small  and  ever  active  agents 
of  putrefaction  and  fermentation.  He  owned  that  "  a  few 
microzoa  did  fly  about  here  and  there,"  but  he  called  the 
theory  of  germs  a  "  ridiculous  fiction." 

At  the  same  time  Liebig,  who,  since  the  interview  in 
July,  1870,  had  had  time  to  recover  his  health,  published  a 
long  treatise  disputing  certain  facts  put  forward  by  Pasteur. 

Pasteur  had  declared  that,  in  the  process  of  vinegar- 
making  known  as  the  German  process,  the  chips  of  beech- 
wood  placed  in  the  barrels  were  but  supports  for  the  myco- 
derma  aceti.  Liebig,  after  having,  he  said,  consulted  at 
Munich  the  chief  of  one  of  the  largest  vinegar  factories, 
who  did  not  believe  in  the  presence  of  the  mycoderma, 
affirmed  that  he  himself  had  not  seen  a  trace  of  the  fungus 
on  chips  which  had  been  used  in  that  factory  for  twenty-five 
years. 

In  order  to  bring  this  debate  to  a  conclusion  Pasteur 
suggested  a  very  simple  experiment,  which  was  to  dry 
some  of  those  chips  rapidly  in  a  stove  and  to  send  them  to 
Paris,  where  a  commission,  selected  from  the  members  of  the 
Académie  des  Sciences,  would  decide  on  this  conflict.  Pasteur 
undertook  to  demonstrate  to  the  Commission  the  presence  of 
the  mycoderma  on  the  surface  of  the  chips.  Or  another 
means  might  be  used  :  the  Munich  vinegar  maker  would  be 
asked  to  scald  one  of  his  barrels  with  boiling  water  and  then 

283 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

to  make  use  of  it  again.  "  According  to  Liebig's  theory," 
said  Pasteur,  "that  barrel  should  work  as  before,  but  I 
afi&rm  that  no  vinegar  will  form  in  it  for  a  long  time,  not 
until  new  mycoderma  have  grown  on  the  surface  of  the 
chips."  In  effect,  the  boiling  water  would  destroy  the  little 
fungus.  With  the  usual  clear  directness  which  increased  the 
interest  of  the  public  in  this  scientific  discussion,  Pasteur 
formulated  once  more  his  complete  theory  of  acetification  : 
"  The  principle  is  very  simple  :  whenever  wine  is  trans- 
formed into  vinegar,  it  is  by  the  action  of  the  layer  of 
mycoderma  aceti  developed  on  its  surface."  Liebig,  how- 
ever, refused  the  suggested  test. 

Immediately  after  that  episode  a  fresh  adversary,  M. 
Frémy,  a  member  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences,  began  with 
Pasteur  a  discussion,  which  was  destined  to  be  a  long  one, 
on  the  question  of  the  origin  of  ferments.  M.  Frémy 
alluded  to  the  fact  that  he  had  given  many  years  to  that 
subject,  having  published  a  notice  on  lactic  fermentation  as 
far  back  as  184 1,  "  at  a  time,"  he  said,  "  when  our  learned 
colleague — M.  Pasteur — was  barely  entering  into  science." 
.  .  .  "In  the  production  of  wine,"  said  M.  Frémy,  "it  is 
the  juice  of  the  fruit  itself,  which,  put  in  contact  with  air, 
gives  birth  to  grains  of  yeast  by  the  transformation  of 
albuminous  matter,  whilst  M.  Pasteur  declares  that  the 
grains  of  yeast  are  produced  by  germs."  According  to  M. 
Frémy,  ferments  did  not  come  from  atmospheric  dusts,  but 
were  created  by  organic  bodies.  And,  inventing  for  his 
own  use  the  new  word  hemiorganism^  M.  Frémy  explained 
the  word  and  the  action  by  saying  that  there  are  some 
hemiorga7tised  bodies  which,  by  reason  of  the  vital  force 
with  which  they  are  endowed,  go  through  successive 
decompositions  and  give  birth  to  new  derivatives  ;  thus  are 
ferments  engendered. 

284 


I870-I872 

Another  colleague,  M.  ïrécul,  a  botanist  and  a  genuine, 
truth-seeking  savant,  arose  in  his  turn.  He  said  he  had 
witnessed  a  whole  transformation  of  microscopic  species 
each  into  the  other,  and  in  support  of  this  theory  he  invoked 
the  names  of  the  three  inseparables — Pouchet,  Musset  and 
Foly.  Himself  a  heterogenist,  he  had  in  1867  given  a  defini- 
tion to  which  he  willingly  alluded:  " Heterogenesis  is  a 
natural  operation  by  which  life,  on  the  point  of  abandoning 
an  organized  body,  concentrates  its  action  on  some  particles 
of  that  body  and  forms  thereof  beings  quite  different  from 
that  of  the  substance  which  has  been  borrowed." 

Old  arguments  and  renewed  negations  were  brought 
forward,  and  Pasteur  knew  well  that  this  was  but  a  re- 
appearance of  the  old  quarrel  ;  he  therefore  answered  by 
going  straight  to  the  point.  At  the  Académie  des  Sciences, 
on  December  26,  1871,  he  addressed  M.  Trécul  in  these 
words  :  '*  I  can  assure  our  learned  colleague  that  he  might 
have  found  in  the  treatises  I  have  published  decisive 
answers  to  most  of  the  questions  he  has  raised.  I  am 
really  surprised  to  see  him  tackle  the  question  of  so- 
called  spontaneous  generations,  without  having  more  at  his 
disposal  than  doubtful  facts  and  incomplete  observations. 
My  astonishment  was  not  less  than  at  our  last  sitting, 
when  M.  Frémy  entered  upon  the  same  debate  with  nothing 
to  produce  but  superannuated  opinions  and  not  one  new 
positive  fact." 

In  his  passion  for  truth  and  his  desire  to  be  convincing 
Pasteur  threw  out  this  challenge  :  *'  Would  M.  Frémy  con- 
fess his  error  if  I  were  to  demonstrate  to  him  that  the 
natural  juice  of  the  grape,  exposed  to  the  contact  of  air, 
deprived  of  its  germs,  can  neither  ferment  nor  give  birth  to 
organized  yeasts  ?  "  This  interpellation  was  perhaps  more 
violent  than  was  usual  in   the  meetings  of  the  solemn 

285 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

Academy,  but  scientific  truth  was  in  question.  And  Pasteur, 
recognizing  the  old  arguments  under  M.  Frémy's  hemi- 
organism  and  M.  Trécul's  transformations,  referred  his  two 
contradictors  to  the  experiments  by  which  he  had  proved 
that  alterable  liquids,  such  as  blood  or  urine,  could  be 
exposed  to  the  contact  of  air  deprived  of  its  germs  without 
undergoing  the  least  fermentation  or  putrefaction.  Had 
not  this  fact  been  the  basis  on  which  Lister  had  founded 
"  his  marvellous  surgical  method  "  ?  And  in  the  bitterness 
given  to  his  speech  by  his  irritation  against  error,  the 
epithet  "  marvellous  "  burst  out  with  a  visible  delight  in 
rendering  homage  to  Lister. 

Pasteur,  then  in  full  possession  of  all  the  qualities  of  his 
genius,  was  feeling  the  sort  of  fever  known  to  great  scien- 
tists, great  artists,  great  writers  :  the  ardent  desire  of  find- 
ing, of  discovering  something  he  could  leave  to  posterity. 
Interrupted  by  these  belated  contradictors  when  he  wanted 
to  be  going  forward,  he  only  restrained  his  impatience  with 
difficulty. 

His  old  master,  Balard,  appealed  to  him  in  the  Académie 
itself  (January  22, 1872),  in  the  name  of  their  old  friendship, 
to  disregard  the  attacks  of  his  adversaries,  instead  of  wast- 
ing his  time  and  his  strength  in  trying  to  convince  them. 
He  reminded  him  of  all  he  had  achieved,  of  the  benefits  he 
had  brought  to  the  industries  of  wine,  beer,  vinegar,  silk- 
worms, etc.,  and  alluded  to  the  possibility  foreseen  by 
Pasteur  himself  of  preserving  mankind  from  some  of  the 
mysterious  diseases  which  were  perhaps  due  to  germs  in 
atmospheric  air.  He  ended  by  urging  him  to  continue 
his  studies  peacefully  in  the  laboratory  built  for  him,  and 
to  continue  the  scientific  education  of  young  pupils  who 
might  one  day  become  worthy  successors  of  Van  Tieghem, 
Duclaux,  Gernez,  Raulin,  etc.  .  .  .  thus  forming  a  whole 

286 


I870-I872 

generation  of  young  scientists  instructed  in  Pasteur's  school. 

M.  Duclaux  wrote  to  him  in  the  same  sense:  "  I  see  very- 
well  what  you  may  lose  in  that  fruitless  struggle — your 
rest,  your  time  and  your  health  ;  I  try  in  vain  to  see  any 
possible  advantage." 

But  nothing  stopped  him  ;  neither  Balard's  public  advice, 
his  pupils'  letters,  even  J.  B.  Dumas'  imploring  looks.  He 
could  not  keep  himself  from  replying.  Sometimes  he 
regretted  his  somewhat  sharp  language,  though — in  his 
own  words — he  never  associated  it  with  feelings  of  hos- 
tility towards  his  contradictors  as  long  as  he  believed  in 
their  good  faith;  what  he  wanted  was  that  truth  should 
have  the  last  word.  "  What  you  lack,  M.  Frémy,  is  famili- 
arity with  a  microscope,  and  you,  M.  Trécul,  are  not  accus- 
tomed to  laboratories  !"  "  M.  Frémy  is  always  trying  to 
displace  the  question,"  said  Pasteur,  ten  months  after  M. 
Balard's  appeal. 

Whilst  M.  Frémy  disputed,  discussed,  and  filled  the 
Académie  with  his  objections,  M.  Trécul,  whose  life  was 
somewhat  misanthropical  and  whose  usually  sad  and  dis- 
trustful face  was  seen  nowhere  but  at  the  Institute,  insisted 
slowly,  in  a  mournful  voice,  on  certain  transformations  of 
divers  cells  or  spores  from  one  into  the  other.  Pasteur 
declared  that  those  ideas  of  transformation  were  erroneous  ; 
but — and  there  lay  the  interest  of  the  debate — there  was 
one  of  those  transformations  that  Pasteur  himself  had  once 
believed  possible:  that  of  the  mycoderma  vini,  or  wine 
flower,  into  an  alcoholic  ferment  under  certain  conditions 
of  existence. 

A  modification  in  the  life  of  the  mycoderma  when  sub- 
merged had  led  him  to  believe  in  a  transformation  of  the 
mycoderma  cells  into  yeast  cells.  It  was  on  this  question, 
which  had  been  left  in  suspense,  that  the  debate  with  Trécul 

287 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

came  to  an  end,  leaving  to  the  witnesses  of  it  a  most  vivid 
memory  of  Pasteur's  personality — inflexible  when  he  held 
his  proofs,  full  of  scruples  and  reserve  when  seeking  those 
proofs,  and  accepting  no  personal  praise  if  scientific  truth 
was  not  recognized  and  honoured  before  everything  else. 

On  November  ii  Pasteur  said:  "Four  months  ago 
doubts  suddenly  appeared  in  my  mind  as  to  the  truth  of 
the  fact  in  question,  and  which  M.  Trécul  still  looks  upon 
as  indisputable.  ...  In  order  to  disperse  those  doubts  I 
have  instituted  the  most  numerous  and  varied  experiments 
and  I  have  not  succeeded  through  those  four  months  in 
satisfying  myself  by  irrefragable  proofs;  I  still  have  my 
doubts.  Let  this  example  show  to  M.  Trécul  how  difficult 
it  is  to  conclude  definitely  in  such  delicate  studies." 

Pasteur  studied  the  scientific  point  for  a  long  time,  for  he 
never  abandoned  a  subject,  but  was  ever  ready  to  begin 
again  after  a  failure.  He  modified  the  disposition  of  his 
first  tests,  and  by  the  use  of  special  vessels  and  slightly 
complicated  apparatus  succeeded  in  eliminating  the  only 
imaginable  cause  of  error — the  possible  fall,  during  the 
manipulations,  of  exterior  germs,  that  is,  the  fortuitous  sow- 
ing of  yeast  cells.  After  that  he  saw  no  more  yeast  and 
no  more  active  alcoholic  fermentation  ;  he  had  therefore 
formerly  been  the  dupe  of  a  delusion.  In  his  Studies  on 
Beer  Pasteur  tells  of  his  error  and  its  rectification  :  "  At 
a  time  when  ideas  on  the  transformations  of  species  are 
so  readily  adopted,  perhaps  because  they  dispense  with 
rigorous  experimentation,  it  is  somewhat  interesting  to  con- 
sider that  in  the  course  of  my  researches  on  microscopic 
plants  in  a  state  of  purity  I  once  had  occasion  to  believe  in 
the  transformation  of  one  organism  into  another,  the  trans- 
formation of  the  mycoderma  vini  or  cerevisiae  into  yeast, 
and  that  this  time  I  was  in  error  ;  I  had  not  avoided  the 

288 


I870-I872 

cause  of  illusion  which  my  confirmed  confidence  in  the 
theory  of  germs  had  so  often  led  me  to  discover  in  the 
observations  of  others." 

"The  notion  of  species,"  writes  M.  Duclaux,  who  was 
narrowly  associated  with  those  experiments,  "  was  saved 
for  the  present  from  the  attacks  directed  against  it,  and  it 
has  not  been  seriously  contested  since,  at  least  not  on  that 
ground." 

Some  failures  are  blessings  in  disguise.  When  discover- 
ing his  mistake,  Pasteur  directed  his  attention  to  a  strange 
phenomenon.  We  find  in  his  book  on  beer — a  sort  of  labora- 
tory diary — the  following  details  on  his  observation  of  the 
growth  of  some  mycoderma  seed  which  he  had  just  scat- 
tered over  some  sweetened  wine  or  beer- wort  in  small  china 
saucers. 

"  When  the  cells  or  articles  of  the  mycoderma  vini  are  in 
full  germinating  and  propagating  activity  in  contact  with 
air  on  a  sweetened  substratum,  they  live  at  the  expense 
of  that  sugar  and  other  subjacent  materials  absolutely  like 
the  animals  who  also  utilize  the  oxygen  in  the  air  while 
freeing  carbonic  acid  gas,  consuming  this  and  that,  and 
correlatively  increasing,  regenerating  themselves  and  cre- 
ating new  materials. 

"  Under  those  conditions  not  only  does  the  mycoderma 
vini  form  no  alcohol  appreciable  by  analysis,  but  if  alcohol 
exists  in  the  subjacent  liquid  the  mycoderma  reduces  it  to 
water  and  carbonic  acid  gas  by  the  fixation  of  the  oxgen 
in  the  air."  Pasteur,  having  submerged  the  mycoderma 
and  studied  it  to  see  how  it  would  accommodate  itself  to 
the  new  conditions  offered  to  it,  and  whether  it  would  die 
like  an  animal  asphyxiated  by  the  sudden  deprivation  of 
oxgen,  saw  that  life  was  continued  in  the  submerged  cells, 
slow,  difficult,  of  a  short  duration,  but  undoubtedly  life,  and 

VOL.  I  289  u 


THE  LIFE  OF   PASTEUR 

that  this  life  was  accompanied  by  alcoholic  fermentation. 
This  time  fermentation  was  due  to  the  fungus  itself.  The 
mycoderma,  originally  an  aërobia — that  is,  a  being  to  the 
life  and  development  of  which  air  was  necessary — became, 
after  being  submerged,  an  anaërobia,  that  is,  a  creature 
living  without  air  in  the  depths  of  the  liquid,  and  behaving 
after  the  manner  of  ferments. 

This  extended  the  notions  on  aerobiae  and  anaërobise 
which  Pasteur  had  formerly  discovered  whilst  making 
researches  concerning  the  vibrio  which  is  the  butyric  fer- 
ment, and  those  vibriones  which  are  entrusted  with  the  special 
fermentation  known  as  putrefaction.  Between  the  aërobiae 
who  require  air  to  live  and  the  anaërobiae  which  perish 
when  exposed  to  air,  there  was  a  class  of  organisms  cap- 
able of  living  for  a  time  outside  the  influence  of  air.  No 
one  had  thought  of  studying  the  mouldiness  which  deve- 
lops so  easily  when  in  contact  with  air  ;  Pasteur  was 
curious  to  see  what  became  of  it  when  submitted  like  the 
mycoderma  to  that  unexpected  régime.  He  saw  the  péni- 
cillium, the  aspergillus,  the  mucor-mucedo  take  the  char- 
acter of  ferments  when  living  without  air,  or  with  a 
quantity  of  air  too  small  to  surround  their  organs  as  com- 
pletely as  was  necessary  to  their  aërobia-plant  life.  The 
mucor,  when  submerged  and  thus  forced  to  become  an 
anaërobia,  offers  budding  cells,  and  there  again  it  seemed 
as  if  they  were  yeast  globules.  "  But,"  said  Pasteur,  "  this 
change  of  form  merely  corresponds  to  a  change  of  function, 
it  is  but  a  self-adaptation  to  the  new  life  of  an  anaërobia." 
And  then,  generalizing  again  and  seeking  for  laws  under 
the  accumulation  of  isolated  facts,  he  thought  it  probable 
that  ferments  had,  "  but  in  a  higher  degree,  a  character 
common  to  most  mucors  if  not  to  all,  and  probably  pos- 
sessed more  or  less  by  all  living  cells,  viz.,  to  be  alternately 

290 


I 870- I 872 

aerobic  or  anaerobic,  according  to  conditions  of  environ- 
ment." 

Fermentation,  therefore,  no  longer  appeared  as  an  iso- 
lated and  mysterious  act  ;  it  was  a  general  phenomenon, 
subordinate  however  to  the  small  number  of  substances 
capable  of  a  decomposition  accompanied  by  a  production 
of  heat  and  of  being  used  for  the  alimentation  of  inferior 
beings  outside  the  presence  and  action  of  air.  Pasteur  put 
the  whole  theory  into  this  concise  formula,  "  Fermentation 
is  life  without  air." 

"  It  will  be  seen,"  wrote  M.  Duclaux,  "  to  what  heights 
he  had  raised  the  debate  ;  by  changing  the  mode  of  inter- 
pretation of  known  facts  he  brought  out  a  new  theory." 

But  this  new  theory  raised  a  chorus  of  controversy. 
Pasteur  held  to  his  proofs  ;  he  recalled  what  he  had  pub- 
lished concerning  the  typical  ferment,  the  yeast  of  beer,  an 
article  inserted  in  the  reports  of  the  Académie  des  Sciences 
for  186 1,  and  entitled,  The  Influence  of  Oxygen  071  the  Develop- 
ment of  Yeast  and  on  Alcoholic  Fermentation.  In  this  article 
Pasteur,  à  propos  of  the  chemical  action  connected  with 
vegetable  life,  explained  in  the  most  interesting  manner  the 
two  modes  of  life  of  the  yeast  of  beer. 

I.  The  yeast,  placed  in  some  sweet  liquid  in  contact  with 
air,  assimilates  oxygen  gas  and  develops  abundantly  ; 
under  those  conditions,  it  practically  works  for  itself  only, 
the  production  of  alcohol  is  insignificant,  and  the  proportion 
between  the  weight  of  sugar  absorbed  and  that  of  the  yeast 
is  infinitesimal.  2.  But,  in  its  second  mode  of  life,  if  yeast 
is  made  to  act  upon  sugar  without  the  action  of  atmospheric 
air,  it  can  no  longer  freely  assimilate  oxygen  gas,  and  is 
reduced  to  abstracting  oxygen  from  the  fermentescible 
matter. 

"It  seems  therefore  natural,"  wrote  Pasteur,  "to  admit 

291 


THE  LIFE  OF  PASTEUR 

that  when  yeast  is  a  ferment,  acting  out  of  the  reach  of 
atmospheric  air,  it  takes  oxygen  from  sugar,  that  being  the 
origin  of  its  fermentative  character."  It  is  possible  to 
put  the  fermentative  power  of  yeast  through  divers  degrees 
of  intensity  by  introducing  free  oxygen  in  variable  quan- 
tities. 

After  comparing  the  yeast  of  beer  to  an  ordinary  plant, 
Pasteur  added  that  "the  analogy  would  be  complete  if 
ordinary  plants  had  an  affinity  for  oxygen  so  strong  as  to 
breathe,  by  withdrawing  that  element  from  unstable  com- 
ponents, in  which  case  they  would  act  as  ferments  on  those 
substances."  He  suggested  that  it  might  be  possible  to 
meet  with  conditions  which  would  allow  certain  inferior 
plants  to  live  away  from  atmospheric  air  in  the  presence  of 
sugar,  and  to  provoke  fermentation  of  that  substance  after 
the  manner  of  beer  yeast. 

He  was  already  at  that  time  scattering  germs  of  ideas, 
with  the  intention  of  taking  them  up  later  on  and  experi- 
menting on  them,  or,  if  time  should  fail  him,  willingly 
offering  them  to  any  attentive  scientist.  These  studies  on 
beer  had  brought  him  back  to  his  former  studies,  to  his 
great  delight. 

"What  a  sacrifice  I  made  for  you,"  he  could  not  help 
saying  to  Dumas,  with  a  mixture  of  affection  and  deference, 
and  some  modesty,  for  he  apparently  forgot  the  immense 
service  rendered  to  sériciculture,  "when  I  gave  up  my 
studies  on  ferments  for  five  whole  years  in  order  to  study 
silkworms!  !!  " 

No  doubt  a  great  deal  of  time  was  also  wasted  by  the 
endless  discussions  entered  into  by  his  scientific  adversaries; 
but  those  discussions  certainly  brought  out  and  evidenced 
many  guiding  facts  which  are  now  undisputed,  as  for 
instance  the  following — i.  Ferments    are   living    beings. 

292 


I870-I872 

2.  There  is  a  special  ferment  corresponding  to  each  kind  of 
fermentation.     3.  Ferments  are  not  born  spontaneously. 

Liebig  and  his  partisans  had  looked  upon  fermentation 
as  a  phenomenon  of  death  ;  they  had  thought  that  beer 
yeast,  and  in  general  all  animal  and  vegetable  matter  in  a 
state  of  putrefaction,  extended  to  other  bodies  its  own  state 
of  decomposition. 

Pasteur,  on  the  contrary,  had  seen  in  fermentation  a 
phenomenon  correlative  with  life;  he  had  provoked  the 
complete  fermentation  of  a  sweet  liquid  which  contained 
mineral  substances  only,  by  introducing  into  it  a  trace  of 
yeast,  which,  instead  of  dying,  lived,  flourished  and  developed. 

To  those  who,  believing  in  spontaneous  generation,  saw 
in  fermentations  but  a  question  of  chance,  Pasteur  by  a 
series  of  experimental  proofs  had  shown  the  origin  of  their 
delusion  by  indicating  the  door  open  to  germs  coming  from 
outside.  He  had  moreover  taught  the  method  of  pure  cul- 
tures. Finally,  in  those  recent  renewals  of  old  quarrels  on 
the  transformations  into  each  other  of  microscopic  species, 
Pasteur,  obliged  by  the  mycoderma  vini  to  study  closely 
its  alleged  transformation,  which  he  had  himself  believed 
possible,  had  thrown  ample  light  on  the  only  dark  spot  of 
his  luminous  domain. 

"  It  is  enough  to  think,"  writes  M.  Duclaux  concerning 
that  long  discussion,  "  we  have  but  to  remember  that  those 
who  denied  the  specific  nature  of  the  germ  would  now 
deny  the  specific  nature  of  disease,  in  order  to  understand 
the  darkness  in  which  such  opinions  would  have  confined 
microbian  pathology  ;  it  was  therefore  important  that  they 
should  be  uprooted  from  every  mind. 

END   OF   VOLUME   I 


Butler  &  Tanner, 

The  Selwood  Printing  works, 

Frome,  and  London. 


